


Harry Potter and the Sun Queen

by Wyrmraker



Series: Harry Potter - World Traveller [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Tomb Raider (Video Games)
Genre: Graphic Violence, Magical kingdom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:20:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 41,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26665831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wyrmraker/pseuds/Wyrmraker
Summary: Once Harry managed to get his stuff in Britain set, he joined the crew of the Endurance and their search for the ancient kingdom of Yamatai.This arc follows the events of the 2013 game Tomb Raider, also known as the Survivor's Timeline.
Series: Harry Potter - World Traveller [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1689067
Comments: 125
Kudos: 308





	1. Off we go!

4 July 1994  
London Docklands  
The Endurance  
11:14 A.M.

Conrad Roth went over the inventory once more. Everything was there, even the stuff that Harry had specified be included at Weasley's recommendation. The crew were gradually settling in, all of whom were absolutely gleeful about the proper repairs to the Endurance.

The engines had been overhauled (which pleased Reyes and Alex), the hull (mostly) cleaned off, the systems on the bridge were up to date for the first time in twenty years (which made Grim scowl and grumble), and even the galley was properly outfitted (Jonah was remarkably uncaring about that). Even Whitman seemed upbeat about how things were progressing.

In the forward holds were expedition equipment of all sorts. They even had one of the new impact resonance sensors, complete with computer systems to analyze the readings. Harry's contribution was definitely coming about nicely, and Roth was determined that his investment wouldn't be going to waste.

The crew had been trickling into the galley for the last hour. Roth had a tradition of a pre-launch chat with his crew, and this was no exception.

"Alright people," Roth began, "let's get started. First, welcome back to the Endurance after her refitting. Thank goodness we got the funds, or else we might be looking at paddling her home." There was a round of laughter at that, as well as memories of more than one occasion of having to limp the Endurance to the nearest port on half an engine's power. "At any rate, the expedition supplies are all laid in, everyone's been doing the pre-launch checks, and everyone's picked a bunk. So far, we're in the green as far as matters go."

Roth paused, and then sighed. "The only remaining crew member will be here on Wednesday, the day we leave. His name's Harry Potter, and he's the majority investor on this job. He'll not be arrogant about it, and I want everyone to treat him as just another member of crew, got it? Yes, he's thirteen..." Roth paused to let the shocked voices calm down, "and yes, he has the spare cash for this. I'm also his legal guardian, much as I was for Lara not that long ago. He _chose_ to fund this; I didn't ask it of him, alright?

"As I was saying, he's to be treated as crew, no more, no less. He'll be bunking, eating, and doing what every other member of the crew does. He's a quick one, so I expect you'll not have to tell him how to do something more than once before he's got a fair understanding.

"Any questions?"

James Whitman spoke up. "What will Potter be bringing to the expedition?" he asked, a slight derision in his voice.

"You mean apart from the majority of the funding?" Whitman seemed to grudgingly acknowledge that even as he nodded. "Harry's going to be bringing the insight of the young. You, me, Grim, we're old. Set in our ways and methods. Lara and Sam bring the latest college teachings. Harry will be bringing perspective, wonder, and raw curiosity. You know, the stuff that's been ground out of most of us by life, yeah?" A rueful laugh floated around the room at that. " _That_ is what he'll be bringing, Whitman.

"Any other questions?" Everyone seemed to shake their heads at that. "Good. Now let's get prepared. Launch is coming up, and we don't want to be late."

********  
14 July 1994  
The Endurance

Harry marveled at the vastness of the ship, as well as how smoothly it sailed with Grim at the helm. Granted, he would have thought them to be going through the Mediterranean, and then the Suez Canal, but both Roth and Grim informed him of the latest threats. Apparently since the fall of the Soviet Union, a number of small gangs armed with soviet weapons had been targeting ships off of the coast of Somalia. As the Endurance was simply a cargo vessel, they'd be a ripe, easy target for young men in small, fast boats who were also armed with RPGs and RKD machine guns. Thus the reason for them taking the longer route East along the northern coast of Europe and Asia.

His magical studies, no longer being hampered by having to stop and write a foot-long assignment on the history of a spell, progressed by leaps and bounds. A lack of judgement, peer pressure, and expectations from without had allowed him to practice safe spells without restrictions (the Solar Spear spell was _not_ safe in enclosed spaces), as well as put the potions lab hidden in his backpack to good use. It turned out that Harry had a knack for brewing the kind of potions that Pomfrey had been feeding him for the last few years. Skelegrow, blood-replenishers, bruise and burn pastes, all of them just seemed to naturally flow through his brewing process. The less medically inclined potions still escaped him, but he chalked that up to a combination of nerves and time.

The few repairs that hadn't been tended to by professionals were being handled by Reyes, with Alex focusing on the electrical. Harry had spent two days assisting; being smaller, he fit more easily into cramped spaces and ductwork. As Reyes had nothing negative to say (and very little positive praise), Harry had to be told by Roth that was just how the woman was. No negative comments or criticisms were her way of telling a person that they'd done well.

Working with Alex on the computers had been quite a lot of fun. The satellite communication system was the size of an entire bunk room, but it at least allowed access to the internet. Alex had showed him how to access various government databases that held publicly accessible satellite imagery, which would be essential on their particular hunt. As Yamatai had been missing for 1700 years, they 'merely' needed to find some islands that were unnamed or unclaimed. Of course, the Pacific Rim was practically littered with them, so Harry was helping out manually, comparing the images with a couple of maps of the Pacific pinned to cork boards.

Jonah had been a marvel for Harry. The large man's gentleness and philosophy were almost legendary among the crew, and Harry really did enjoy helping out in the galley. Their conversations over cooking suppers for the crew were quite enlightening to Harry. Jonah was descended from a long line of Polynesian shamans. The mysticism had been lost over the decades, but Jonah's tutelage by his grandmother (combined with what was, according to Jonah's grandmother, some sort of magical creature ancestry) helped Jonah to hone his senses to unnatural events happening around him.

Whitman was being something of a pill, however. He was proving to be _nothing_ like Lockhart. That man was arrogant, whiny, a verbal bully, and had a distinct lack of charisma. He also almost entirely refused to have anything to do with the standard shipboard activities, claiming it his 'privilege' as an investor to let the crew run matters without even pretending to assist.

Even the 'Reality Television' filler segments were (in Harry's opinion) painfully pathetic. Harry _had_ thought that the man's television experience would have made him more comfortable in front of a camera. However, so simple a task as gutting a fish made the man fly off in a tantrum that wouldn't even come close to one of Dudley's. Sam always (somehow) managed to bring him back, but it was always a fairly near thing.

Sam herself was something of an enigma to Harry. Apparently, the entire Yamatai expedition had been inspired by her. She claimed to be a descendant of the original Sun Queen, Himiko, and had grown up with the legendry of her ancestor as her childhood bedtime stories. At the same time, her photography and cinematography skills were amazing, and her ability to return Whitman to the camera's eye was nothing less than astonishing.

Apart from these things, Sam mostly stuck with Lara. She was more than willing to help Harry with his budding photography skills, and he even was placed behind the video camera a number of times (Sam claimed that he had a natural talent for tracking an actor on the move, while Alex worked better at keeping focus when an actor was more stationary).

Roth and Grim were generally happy to be back at sea. They both had an endless supply of stories of their varied adventures, most of which were liberally sprinkled with the Tales of the Two Dicks. Roth had been running him through how he was managing this stretch of the expedition, whereas Grim had been coaching him on how at-sea navigation worked. Harry had never really had to use a compass and sextant before, but within three days he could narrow the Endurance's location down to within twenty miles on a map. Only after Harry could do that would Grim teach him how to use the electronic navigation equipment.

And lastly (of the crew of significance) was Lara. Her determination to solve the 'Mystery of Yamatai' absolutely _dwarfed_ Hermione's focus on studying. She would spend _hours_ in the state room, poring over maps, charts, and tomes filled with legends that supposedly dated to the period. Fresh satellite maps mixed with transparencies printed with ancient maps cluttered the cork boards, and a pair of white boards held the latest of comparisons between legends. It was a fascinating near argument in writing of legendry between Lara and Whitman that never quite devolved into name-calling, but seemed to get quite close in some of the counter commentaries.

Lara, much like the rest of the crew, had taken to educating Harry on her own specialty: East Asian History. Tales and legends spun out, and Harry was more eager and studious than he'd ever been for Binns' history class. Comparisons of famous explorers from that era came up, as well as reproduced copies of ship logs and the like.

And then came today. It was much like any other, with Lara and Harry in the state room, Lara trying to glare answers out of the maps, and Harry flipping through various translations of log books. And then he stopped. Blinked at the maps. Frowned.

"Lara, quick question. We're looking for a spot that nobody has yet reported, right?"

"That's right," Lara replied absently.

"So we're looking for a spot that nobody has _returned from_."

Lara's head snapped up, her gaze meeting Harry's eyes, even as his own gaze was locked on the map board. "Go on."

Harry jerked away from the table, a thick tome in his hand. "I've been looking at the log books, and something poked at me. Almost every one of the books has a region marked 'To Be Avoided'. Always the same region"

Lara nodded at that. "Yes, many regions have those sorts of areas. Superstitions tend to have certain commonalities across cultures. Like the Bermuda Triangle. It was marked as that by Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans."

"Except that this note is from _Magellan_ ," Harry stated, handing her the log book as he walked towards the map board. Tracing the maps with his fingertips, he made some adjustments in the transparencies, overlaying a half-dozen maps before turning to say, "Even Magellan was warned away from this area by local mariners in the Ladrones Islands. And if we're looking for a place nobody has _returned_ from,, it should be... _he_ _re_ ," he finished, pointing at a spot on the combined overlays.

Lara stepped forward, looking at Harry's suggestion. The half-dozen overlays were all ancient exploration routes and the current map of modern shipping routes. All of these were laid over a printout of a satellite image of the region.

Right there, in the center of it all, entirely untouched by the lines of travel, lay a dense storm system. Right in the middle of the area known as The Dragon's Triangle.

"Wait... Are you saying that Yamatai might be right there? A place everyone knew about but didn't dare go?"

Harry nodded. "Even Grim knows not to go there. According to naval superstition, the region is death to enter, nobody returns, and so on. Grim mentioned it last week, but it didn't really click until I was going through the copies of the ship logs."

"This... This could be _exactly_ what we're looking for!" Lara crowed, immediately heading for the log books Harry had been going through. "Give me a little time to check out your theory, and we'll see what we can do with it."

"Anything I can do to help?" Harry asked.

"Get with Alex. See if he can find a satellite image that'll map past the storm system," Lara stated, already having all of the logbooks scattered across the tables.

16 July, 1994  
The Endurance

"Harry, you said you wanted to learn how to shoot. I have it set up the same way I taught my sister. Think you can manage?"

"I think so, Roth," Harry replied, eyes flitting across the table that Roth had set up at the bow of the ship. They had come to a stop off the coast of Hokkaido, waiting on a refueling vessel to swing by. It was mid-summer, and the crew had decided to take the day off to go swimming in the calm ocean, get caught up on their hobbies, or (in Sam's case) top up a suntan. Harry was having issues with a pair of lithe, beautiful, fully grown women in bikini tops lounging openly on the deck. The body repair potion had been making it's rounds, and currently he was (finally) beginning the hormonal rush of puberty. He had also sprouted over two inches in height, and all of his assisting on the ship was building a satisfying amount of muscle. After a little over two weeks, Harry had gone from an even five feet tall, 105 pounds, to almost 5 foot 2 inches, 125 pounds.

The table was laden with a few boxes of rifle and pistol shells, tools of some sort, two rifles, and two handguns.

"Good to hear," Roth smiled out, leaning against the bolted down table. "Now, a gun has two advantages over a wand. Do you know what they are?"

"I'll have to say speed and range. But that's me repeating what Bill told me."

Roth laughed at that. "Too right. And yeah, speed and range. My sister tried to challenge me on a skeet shoot, her wand against my pistol. I can accurately drop a dozen rounds downrange in the same time it takes someone to cast three spells. The first spell might hit the target, but powering up the next spell takes time, effort, and a reajdustment of aim. With a pistol, the followup shot just takes the aim part.

"Next is range. I reckon a wizard can hit a target a long ways away, but it'd be more down to luck than skill. With a decent rifle, I can easily hit a target a hundred meters away. With a scope, triple that, depending on the rifle.

"Today I'll be teaching you on two firearms. This one," Roth held up a rifle," is a Ruger Mini-14. Chambered in 5.56mm NATO, it's a very common, useful rifle. This one," Roth now held up a pistol, "is a Colt Commander. Modern Colt M1911, chambered in .45ACP. Another very common firearm around the world.

"Out there," he stated, pointing out at sea, "is a small raft. I've set up a reusable target device on it, and then let it float behind us while we stopped. The ocean is pretty calm today, so it won't be terribly hard to teach you how to lead a target."

Harry nodded at that. "I get it. What's the first step?"

"Heh. First step is giving the gun an inspection. You need to make sure the barrel is clear, and the action is working..."

25 July 1994  
Endurance  
Galley

Harry sighed. Whitman disagreeing with Lara had become _very_ annoying over the last week. Harry and Alex had managed to get access to a satellite image of a geological survey of the region. It was originally set up as an experimental first attempt to map the ocean floor, but the system simply wasn't up to the task of penetrating that much deep water. However, cutting through dense cloud cover had been simple for the systems.

Harry didn't ask how Alex managed to get those images. Rumors of his attempt to skim money from online gambling to get money for the expedition had lodged in his head, and less-than-legal activities seemed almost commonplace to the older crew. It just seemed sensible to not ask.

At any rate, there, at the center of the storm cell was an island. The image was grayscale, so fine detail was nearly impossible. The sizing scale told them that it was about 20 miles by 30 miles in size, seemed of volcanic origin, and that there was a large beach tucked into the central southern section of the island. There was an old battleship aground on the edge of the beach, and buildings dotted the landscape. There was no real way to get finer details without Alex somehow hacking one of the Keyhole satellites, and Harry was fine with that.

"How can you suggest I'm not serious about this expedition, Lara?" Whitman asked. Most of the crew had assembled in the galley. Jonah was stirring some of his (quite amazing) fish stew, Roth and Grim were cheering on opposing teams for a football match that was playing on the radio, and Alex was going over the satellite images again on his laptop while Lara and Whitman were arguing. "It's not just Harry funding us, I've put my savings on the line too."

"We've all got some kind of stake in this," Reyes cut in. "The funding won't last forever, Whitman. I sure as hell don't want to put Harry out any more than we have." Harry shrugged at that unconcernedly. As far as he was concerned, almost half a million Pounds had been money well spent simply for the peace of mind he'd had over the last three weeks.

"That's precisely why we should push East, not West."

"No one believes Yamatai's that far east. The books simply don't support it!" Whitman put out, shaking his head at Lara's comment. 

"Well, whoever wrote those books didn't _find_ Yamatai, did they?" Sam commented, idly stirring her very hot soup as she went through a log book.

"I've talked to Roth and Harry about this," Lara explained. "There's no point in following other people's footsteps, Dr. Whitman."

Whitman sighed. shaking his head. "I refuse to bet _my_ reputation on _your_ hunch! I'm the lead archaeologist here."

"And when were you last in the field without a TV crew behind you?" Grim mockingly inserted.

"I've got thirty years' experience, two PhDs, one in East Asian History. So why don't you just stick to boats, Mr. Grim?"

"Ship, Dr. Whitman. It's a ship. Don't need a PhD to know _that_."

"Look," Lara interrupted. "Going East will take us directly into the Devil's Triangle. That's where we need to go."

Jonah stepped up to the galley table passing out bowls full of stew. "Lara, my little bird, I'd follow you almost anywhere, but that place has a bad energy."

"Bad storms, more like," Alex interrupted, turning his laptop screen around to show the storm cells. "Makes the Bermuda Triangle look like Disney World. Sign me up."

Lara scoffed at Whitman. "The stories of Queen Himiko say that she could summon storms. Myths are usually based on some version of the truth! What if Yamatai was somewhere in the Triangle itself?" she asked, knowing full well that she couldn't tell Whitman about Harry's theory that Himiko was actually an ancient sorceress.

"Look this is the satellite imagery from inside the Dragon's Triangle," Alex said, pointing to his screen. Everyone gathered close to stare at the violent storm in silence.

"That doesn't look good," Sam noted aloud.

"If it's wet, I can sail on it," Grim muttered, smirking at the challenge.

"Oh, don't tell me you're seriously consi-"

"Enough!" Roth belted out, finally standing up. "Reyes is right. We don't have the funds to piss about. It's now or never. Lara and Harry are offering fresh ideas and a plan. I'm the captain here, it's my decision. We're going into the Dragon's Triangle"

Whitman sighed, turning away as he insultingly asked, "Why am I even here?"

"Your show got canceled and you didn't see it coming because your agent lied to you," Harry commented mildly as he sipped at his stew. "And your wife is divorcing you because you got caught screwing a student. That's why you're here."

Whitman stormed out of the room, and the entire galley lit up in laughter and applause.

*****

27 July, 1994  
The Endurance  
The Dragon's Triangle

Stiff winds pushed the ship, waves battering the side of the Endurance. Harry sat in his bunk room, relaxing in the early evening as he read through book on advanced portkey theory. He was fairly sure he was getting the hang of it.

Suddenly, the entire ship shuddered as a metallic screaming rang through the hallway. Blinking, Harry slipping on his boots even as he tossed the book into his bag. Opening the hatch, he was very started to see rain pouring in from the end of the corridor. Past that by some thirty feet was the front end of the Endurance.

Almost by habit, Harry snaked out his arm, allowing his pack to set into place on his back. Wand in hand, he rushed forward to see Jonah struggling with a floor hatch.

"Harry! Help me with this; Lara is trapped."

"Move." Jonah did, and then Harry pointed his wand, incanting, " _ **Accio Hatch**_ " Instantly the hatch tore free of it's mechanism, and Harry stepped aside as the round metal door flew out the opened section of the ship. Jonah reached in, pulling Lara out from under the water.

As Lara ran towards the breach and Jonah made his way aft, Harry turned slightly, opening the access pouch on the side of the pack. Silently thanking both Harkin and his own paranoia, he reached into what the catalog called the Access Chamber. Essentially a room directly linked to a pouch, all Harry had to do was reach in and think about what he wanted from the room, and it would come to his hand for extraction.

Pulling out and unshrinking his Firebolt, he checked his compass and headed for what appeared to be fires in the distance through the driving rain.


	2. Taking In the Sights

Harry flew hard, his Firebolt responding beautifully to his lightest touch. It's environmental charms were holding up flawlessly in the typhoon force winds, and even the tallest waves were blasted through by Harry's flight. Within minutes, he could make out trees beneath his flight path as the storm seemed marginally to ease up.

Harry pulled himself up short, and then landed. Frowning to himself, he transfigured a hook onto a tree, hung up his pack, and walked in. Ten minutes later, he emerged fully dressed. A short sleeved, button down four-pocket shirt was covered by a tan denim jacket, and his light grey cargo pants were tucked up to cover the tops of his dragonhide combat boots. His wand was in it's holster on the underside of his right arm, the holster itself attached to the armored bracer. His sword (which he had been quietly, slowly, _secretly_ practicing basic maneuvers with) was in a sheath on his back, his moke-skin pouch tied up at his lower back, and a canteen on his left hip. His hair, which had gotten fairly long during the last four weeks, had been bound into a rough ponytail with one of Lara's hair ties, and Harry finally settled a felt fedora onto his head to keep the rain out of his eyes.

Sighing heavily, he pulled the compass off of his broom, shrank and pocketed the broom, and checked matters. He had noticed that his flight was almost directly south-west, and he figured that the Endurance's wreckage would be back that direction. He also figured that it would be the most likely point of landing for any survivors.

Some sense of Harry's forced him to jerk aside, even as a fist holding a stone whiffed past his head. Rolling, Harry managed to get himself upright with wand in hand before exclaiming, " _ **Expelliarmus**_!"

The stone was ripped from the hand of the man-shaped figure in the darkness, even as the man stumbled back. The man babbled something in a language not known to Harry, slowly stepping back as Harry got to his feet.

"What do you want?" Harry demanded, wand steady as he adjusted his feet. Moving his head marginally allowed him to peer slightly out of the edges of his vision. The extreme gloom made it hard to tell if anyone (or thing) else was hiding in the forest, but at least the figure wasn't going anywhere.

"Survivor," the figure stated in a rough, masculine voice, "I can help you. Help you find your friends."

"Right," Harry replied, raising his wand to tap his glasses. "Okay, that'd be great," he continued, voice full of relief. "Come over here, and we can figure this out, yeah?"

The figure approached, even as the cloud cover was beginning to break up. Harry caught the glint of something metallic in the man's hand in the sudden starlight.

" _ **Lumos Maxima**_." The man howled at the sudden explosive brightness that erupted between them. Harry was unaffected, as he had silently cast a specialized shade charm on his glasses (one found in yet another frightfully blue collar spell book on construction and metallurgy) that was designed for welding with magical lightning. " _ **Incarcerous. Silencio**_."

The man dropped, tied up and silenced as Harry cut the power to his light spell to a manageable level. The charm on his glasses adjusted as well, even as his pack flew over to attach itself to his back.

Sighing, Harry knelt next to the man whose eyes were rolling in terror as he was struggling against his restraints. "I know that you understand English," Harry commented, idly picking up the knife that the man had dropped. "If I drop the silencing spell, will you cooperate?"

A moment later, Harry muttered, "Goddammit," as the man seemed to have a small seizure and then collapse bonelessly. Casting a health diagnosis charm, he could tell that the man had simply passed out.

Dismissing the ropes, Harry finally took a good look at the man in the light. Starvingly lean, the man was deeply tanned with hard-worn good looks. He was filthy, but not smelly, and his heavily stained clothes were tattered at the edges. And he was barefoot.

Harry's head snapped up as he heard the baying of wolves in the distance. Cringing at his brief moment of indecision, he finally levitated the man up to a freshly transfigured tree stand to sleep off his fright. While he _had_ tried to assault Harry, at least the man wouldn't be waking up in the middle of being eaten by wolves.

Rechecking his compass (and rubbing at the headache that had made itself known) Harry pulled his broom back out and began heading North-East through the woods.

Little buildings stood out starkly in the starlight, their dirty white walls bright against the gloom as he flew past. The trees themselves were tall, with little undergrowth or lower branches. Harry wondered how such a thing was possible, and what breed the trees were.

Twenty minutes later, Harry managed to make out the flickers of light to the North-West. Adjusting his heading, Harry flew at a relaxed pace. There were figures in the forest below him, but in the gloom, Harry couldn't tell if they were human or animal.

A little while later, Harry finally exited the forest to see barrels containing fire lighting up some sort of shanty town. Corrugated metal and reclaimed wood had been kludged together to make a small, ramshackle city. Pulling out his omnioculars, Harry scanned the area.

A few people were wandering around. Most were wearing jackets and pants, and armed with some sort of submachine guns. Others were in basic shirts and pants, and carried machetes on their backs, as well as some sort of pickaxe on their belts.

Harry drifted his broom closer, casting the disillusionment charm as he went. Several minutes later, he began overhearing voices.

"Did you hear, Brother?" one asked. "A new wreck. Some kind of cargo ship."

"I heard," the second one groaned out. "Man, _everybody_ has been talking about that! What about it?"

"Well, I also heard that Father Mathias _himself_ went to go check it out."

"Wait, what? Father Mathias _never_ goes out there personally. I wonder what's going on..."

"Well, _I_ heard that there are at least two women on the crew."

"Oh, hell," the second one groaned. "Y'know, I almost feel bad about what we do to those poor women."

"W-what do you mean, Brother?" the first one asked nervously.

"That's right, you're new, aren't you?" the second one asked in a friendly manner. "Sit down and let me explain.

"First, we're trapped here. You know about that. Hell, you've _seen_ the storms rise up out of nowhere and crush any boats trying to get away, yeah? Well, Father Mathias has been here the longest, and he has a fire ritual. He believes that if we can bring Sun Queen Himiko back, she'll be so grateful that she'll let us leave. We just have to find the right woman for the ritual."

"So... is it like firewalking or something?" the first one asked.

"No, not at all," the second man chuckled out. "The woman gets tied to a log in the ritual chamber, and then we set it on fire."

"Wait, human sacrifice?" the first man exclaimed. "That's just... The fuck, man?!"

"No, it's not like that," the second man soothed out. "Well, it is, but it's not. You see, Father Mathias has figured out the ritual. Apparently the flames won't burn if we get the right chick up there. When that happens, she gets taken to the ritual chamber on top of the northern mountain, and Father Mathias will perform the ritual that'll bring Himiko back to us. We just gotta find the right woman for the job, you see."

"But... Setting women on fire... It just seems wasteful, Brother."

"Honestly, it's more merciful than the alternative," the second man commented idly, reaching into his pocket for something. "We just set them on fire. What I've heard is that the Oni do a hell of a lot worse."

"I've seen their fucking food larders, Brother," the first man spat out, disgust ringing in his voice.

The second man shook his head at that. "That's just the men they catch. Rumor has it..." The man looked around, and then leaned towards the first man. "Look, Father Mathias has declared this as heresy, but I heard from a guy that he _saw_ the Oni capture a boat full of college-age women about a decade ago. All five women were gang-raped and hauled off. He figured that the Oni keep up their numbers through rape and forced breeding."

"So, like, that have _nurseries_ and shit?" the first man asked, clearly shocked.

The second man shrugged at the question. "Beats me, Brother. But it _would_ explain how the Oni manage to keep up their numbers, wouldn't it?"

"I just thought it was them eating people," the first man said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, but that doesn't explain how there are never a lack of the fuckers, no matter how many we kill. The breeding thing does, y'know? I mean, it's heresy, but that shit just makes sense.

"Oh, where did the cargo ship come aground?"

"Shipwreck Beach," the first one answered. "The survivors were spotted at one of the old bunkers there. South end of the island. Apparently the Russians are amazed that none of them got blown up by the old sea mines."

"Huh. They got unlucky then," the second man commented, biting into something. "Either they join us, die, or are food for the Oni. Man, that's a fucked up roll of the dice. Seriously, the mines would have at least been merciful."

"No lie, Brother. So, any new orders?"

"Nah, not today. I heard that Brother Benny was whining; something about the numbers of the food stores not being right. But he bitches about everything."

Harry let the Firebolt drift away, his thought reeling at the reality of what he heard. Human sacrifice and resurrection, cannibalism, rape. The second man had been entirely too calm about it all; at least the first man seemed to have _some_ reservations about it all.

Heading West, Harry figured that he'd try to shoot for the center of the island before trying to find this 'Shipwreck Beach' to the South.

As he traveled (somewhat slowly, as he didn't want to be highlit against the sky once dawn arrived, nor did he want to collide with a tree. He trusted the safety charms on the broom, but not _that_ much), he considered what he'd learned.

An island nobody returned from. An island that, apparently, had sudden storms that would crush anyone trying to leave. A group with religious undertones that ritually _set women on fire_. Some sort of Japanese demons that ate men and gang-raped women.

"Ohh, this is so buggered," Harry muttered aloud as he crested a mountainous ridge line.

And then he pulled the broom to a full stop. Laid out in a bowl-shaped valley was an ancient village. Along the western side of the valley were several small buildings, and one _big_ building. To the East were more buildings, but for some reason they were built at the tops of little plateaus of rock. Along the north, built (somehow) into the nearly sheer cliff face of the valley, were even more houses in a line that jutted out in bright contrast to the stone in the pre-dawn light.

Looking around, Harry saw more storm clouds scudding about, heading towards his position. Raising the omnioculars again, he scanned the terrain for anything of significance.

There, along the western section of the valley, was a small building with a fire inside. Focusing the magic, he spotted, Conrad Roth coming out, guns blazing as he shot at several wolves lunging at him.

Angling his broom, Harry pushed it to nearly full speed towards the shooting. As soon as he got in range, his wand began spitting out cutting spells. The spells, designed for use in the kitchen, slashed through fur and hide with ruthless efficiency, and the rest of the wolves turned and ran off.

Landing, Harry walked up to where Roth was unsteadily maintaining his balance. Lara emerged from a tunnel he hadn't seen, and they both helped Roth to get back to the fire.

"You aren't doing too well," Harry commented, pulling a first aid kit out of his bag.

"Eh, looks worse than it is," Roth replied, gesturing at the exposed muscle on his calf. "Wolves took my food pack. Emergency transmitter's in it."

"Roth," Lara began as Harry used water from his wand to wash out the wound, "you need bandages, morphine, antiseptic..."

"Also in the pack," Roth stated, leaning against a post. "Seems that Harry has a lot of that covered; all we really need is the transmitter."

"I can deal with this," Harry commented. "I at least have the basics."

"Fine," Lara huffed out, running her fingers through her hair in frustration. "So where the hell are we?"

"Some sort of village at the center of the island," Harry replied, spritzing the wound with a potion to staunch bleeding. "To the West is some sort of shanty town. According to the locals, the Endurance is beached on the South end of the island; they called it Shipwreck Beach."

"Good work, Lad," Roth stated, smiling. "How'd you get that?"

"Seems that the locals aren't going to be friendly," Harry replied, now dribbling non-magical antiseptic into the wound. "Seems like some sort of religious group. Apparently they tie women to a stake and set them on fire. Something about bringing back Sun Queen Himiko. It's amazing what you can overhear when you're perched over someone's roof," he smirked out.

"That doesn't sound good," Lara stated, sitting down heavily. "Did you get anything else?"

"Some guy named Father Mathias is their leader. Apparently he's the 'Join or Die' sort. And then there are something they're calling Oni. Apparently they eat men and gangrape women. Mind you," Harry continued warningly, "this is just the word of two guys I overheard talking, okay? Might just be rumors about the Oni, but this 'Fire Ritual' seemed to be talked about as a fact."

"Oh, hell," Lara breathed out, pacing back and forth.

"Gets worse. According to the pair, nobody gets off the island. Storms pop up out of nowhere to crush any boats trying to leave. Roth, does that... Damn. I think he passed out."

Lara checked his pulse, then said, "Probably a bit of shock. Keep him warm; I'll go get the damn transmitter."

"From wolves?" Harry asked incredulously.

"I have a bow and a pistol," Lara commented, pulling the handgun out of a thigh holster to refill the magazine. "Wolves are naturally scared of gunfire, so I'll be fine."

"No, you'll be _careful_ ," Harry stated firmly, looking her in the eye. "They weren't backing off when Roth was shooting. They only started running when I started casting. So _Be Careful_ ," he ended.

"Before I go," Lara stated, reaching into her own moke-skin pouch, "two things. First, here's a two-way radio. Roth has one, I have one, and Reyes has one. Stay in contact. Second, the locals have kidnapped Sam. I'm hoping we can find her before anything bad happens."

"Same here. Good luck, Lara."

"Stay safe, Harry."

Sighing, Harry cast a warming charm on Roth before setting to bandaging the older man's leg. He didn't know the charm that Madame Pomfrey used for unconscious patients to make them swallow a potion, so he just had to wait for Roth to come to consciousness before handing him a blood replenisher.

Finally allowing himself to relax, Harry pulled some cans of food out of his pack. Three cans of beef stew were cracked open to be surrounded by coals at their base.

Forty minutes later, Lara swept in, absolutely drenched. She smiled gratefully at Harry's warming and drying charms as she set down the transmitter.

"How's he doing?"

"Warm and dry," Harry answered. "Fed up, if the lazy bugger wakes up."

"Rrgh... Who're you calling lazy, kid," Roth complained, grunting as he slowly sat himself upright.

"Oh, nobody," Harry commented.

"After all," Lara chimed in, "the older generation needs their rest."

"All comedians, the lot of you," Roth groused, easing back to lean against a post. "You got it," he said, gesturing to the transmitter.

"Food first, then a plan," Harry stated, sliding the now hot cans of stew out of the coals.

The three ate in silence, until Lara said, "If this _is_ Yamatai, some things make no sense."

"Like what", Roth asked.

"First, the buildings are all from the Kamakura period. Roughly 1200 A.D.," she explained for Harry. "All the records for Yamatai indicated that it disappeared around 300 A.D. So somehow 700 years of historical record came up missing."

"Could've been a purge," Roth commented, his spoon scraping the sides of the can. "The emperors that came after might not have wanted the people knowing that someone like Himiko existed. Might've threatened the 'God Ordained Emperor' and all that."

"That's possible," Lara admitted. "Also, it seems that Himiko is _still_ being worshipped here! Little shrines are _everywhere_ , and they're all being maintained with candles and such."

"I'm thinking it's the religious group doing that," Harry commented, setting aside his own can of stew in favor of his canteen.

"And there's something else happening here. I was dragged to a shrine, rolled up into a bag, and hauled up by my feet to hang from a rafter. There were other bodies in there as well. Someone's doing human sacrifice here."

"Wasn't the guys I saw, or it might be a different set of them doing that," Harry admitted thoughtfully.

"It just doesn't make any sense, unless..."

"Unless the sacrifices are being made in some kind of ritual preparation for the return of Himiko," Roth cut in. "If you think about it, there's a lot of sense there. Ritual sacrifices, some sort of fire ritual, and the belief that they can bring back the Sun Queen? This is some old-school ritual magic stuff."

"Bloody hell," Lara swore, slowly standing up to stretch. "So, what's the plan, Roth?"

Roth grunted, getting to his feet. "Up there is an old radio tower," he said, gesturing up the cliff face to the Northwest. Harry could just make out a slowly flashing red light up there. "If we can get the transmitter connected, we should be able to boost the range far enough to reach the shipping lanes. From there, it's just a matter of being patient until someone responds."

"What about you and me?" Harry asked.

"I plan to get to higher ground," Roth admitted. "I'm not going to get very far with this leg, but I need a better position in case the wolves come back. As for you, Harry," Roth continued, resting his hand on Harry's shoulder, "I want you with Reyes and the others looking for Sam while Lara gets the transmitter dealt with."

"I can do that," Harry said, nodding.

"One last thing," Roth said. "The both of you need to be bloody well careful. We know damn little about the island, the locals, or the wildlife. Stealth and survival are your watchwords. Also, I have one of these for each of you," he continued, holding out a pair of steel climbing axes. "Lara, I need to to run Harry through their use. And if you're anything like you were on the ship," he continued, looking at Harry, "I know you'll pick up on how to use it fast."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Having Harry on the Firebolt really adjusts how the information in the game is discovered. And I wanted Harry on his own for a bit before meeting up with Roth and Lara at the Mountain Village.
> 
> That bit about the Oni? That is referenced in the game. On the path to and from the Temple, the Solarii can be overheard gossiping about the Oni doing exactly what I listed. I simply expanded a bit on it.
> 
> Next chapter, I plan on getting Harry more directly involved in the action. The 'Graphic Violence' tag is up for a reason.
> 
> As always, Comments and Constructive Criticism are always welcome!


	3. First Blood

Harry climbed the rock face, the morning sun at his back and Lara coaching his axe strikes and balance (even as she internally marveled at _just how fast_ his learning scale was). Roth had been correct in telling him that his broom would mostly be a hindrance during the day, where he'd be picked out against the sky by people with bows and firearms.

As they crested the cliff, voices began to be heard.

"Did you hear? The village went up in flames last night."

From behind a crate, Lara and Harry peered at the scene. A waterfall was there, and two open-faced buildings were on either side of the pool it fed. Two men on the left, one on the right. Two of the men were shouting to each other over the waterfall, as the third seemed to be setting up a chess board.

"Yeah. The damned outsider woman was there. She killed Vladimir. I heard she shot half his face off before tearing through the group that was there. She must've killed twenty before getting away."

"Damn. Hear anything about the other outsiders?"

"Not really. I heard a bunch of them have been on the move, but no real location yet. Father Mathias grabbed one of the females, but that was hours ago."

"Damn. At least we're here on the overlook. We'll see anyone coming _well_ before they see us to make sure they die for the Sun Queen."

Harry and Lara ducked back down. Whispering quietly, Harry said, "They're going to kill us."

"Yes," Lara replied in a shaky whisper. "What do we do?"

Harry's eyes hardened as his expression went flat. "Disarm first. If we do that and they're still violent, we drop them," he replied, a flash of the confrontation with Quirrel popping up in his mind. After all, if Quirrel had just tied him up, he'd have survived the encounter.

Sighing, he raised his wand, muttering three quiet cutting charms. With a trio of nearly musical 'twangs', all three bowstrings snapped.

Much swearing followed, and all three men grabbed up bottles with cloth hanging from the mouths. Glaring out as each took up a position next to a lantern, the men stood ready to set their unseen attackers aflame.

Eyes wide, Harry shook his head from their hidden position. Nodding to Lara, Harry leaned out, muttering " ** _Depulso_**."

Instantly, the lone man on the right was slammed into the back of the small building. Both bones and wood could be heard breaking As the other two men's attention were drawn, Lara popped up, smoothly firing an arrow into a throat as Harry did something that every book on magic agreed was a Very Bad Thing.

" _ **Accio Cultist**_ ," he muttered. Instantly, the man slammed into the crate that Lara and Harry had taken cover behind, shoving the extremely heavy crate back several inches. Bodily fluids splashed away from the crate as the cultist was quite thoroughly pancaked.

"Do the pulse," Harry thickly whispered, wand still at the ready. 

Lara flexed her instincts, revealing a few items of interest as well as the three corpses. "We're clear."

Harry turned, emptying the contents of his stomach into the running water. Beef stew spewed out, mingling with the freshly spilled blood as it ran down the waterfall.

Harry used the water spell, to rinse out his mouth, and a cleansing charm for his nose. Lara handed him two tablets, saying, "Antacids. They'll help, and keep your teeth safe."

Harry crunched the tablets, swallowing them as he slowly stood, sheathing his wand. The sky had darkened again; the storms gathered quickly and randomly, it seemed. Lara was already on the move, he hands deftly rifling through pockets. Arrows, bits of bric-a-brac, and a few bullets were recovered before she stood up to look around.

Harry, in the meantime, had been examining his own two kills. The man he summoned had literally been crushed into the crate as if by a hydraulic press. The man he'd banished into the rear wall of the building was less damaged, but Harry could still make out the crushed skull and broken ribs in the gloom.

Sighing heavily, he looked around at the area. Rock walls alongside the waterfalls looked to be made for easy climbing, and seemed like the easiest way for Lara to make way towards the radio tower. Harry figured he'd keep climbing until he got to the ridge line above that path before trying to contact Reyes.

Neither of the two said anything as they huffed their way up the sheer cliff faces. Harry was barely managing to keep up with Lara, but neither said anything. Harry was continuing out of sheer determination, even as his muscles burned and eyes stung from sweat. Lara, being well practiced, merely slowed down slightly, inwardly pleased that Harry was giving such a good showing considering his lack of experience.

Finally at the path, Lara said, "Good luck, Harry. Stay safe."

"You too," Harry replied. "After all," he continued, showing his lopsided smile, "we're already halfway done with the expedition! _We_ _found Yamatai!_ All that's left is to get back."

Lara gave him a quick side hug, then jogged off down the path as Harry set his climbing axe and resumed. Twenty minutes later he crested the ridge, finally allowing himself to look around.

Harry found himself just North of the central village. Thanking three years of Quidditch, he found himself lacking any vertigo from being so high up. Harry noted several landmarks along his line of sight. First, obviously, was the radio tower to the Northwest. His omnioculars could pick out some sort of concrete bunkers at it's base. Far, _far_ to the Northeast, raised higher than anything else on the island, stood what seemed to be some sort of open air temple. Far to the Southeast, on a much lower section of the island, stood the shanty town. A long series of towers stretched from there, linked by thick cables bearing some sort of gondola system, towards some place on the Southern stretch of the island. Just South of the shanty town stood some sort of ruined palace (with more emphasis on palace than ruin) atop a low mesa.

Directly South Harry could just make out the beached battleship that he and Alex had spotted on the satellite map; he was guessing that that was where the 'Shipwreck Beach' he'd overheard the locals talking about was.

His radio crackled to life. "Harry, can you hear me?"

"I hear you, Alex," Harry replied, keying the mic. "What's going on?"

"Lara is getting to the radio tower. Where are you?"

"Just North of a big village in the center of the island, on the ridge line. What about you?"

"Uhhh... We're just West some kind of shack town. A lot of guys with guns and bows."

"Shit," Harry replied. "Why are you there?"

"Harry," came a new voice, "this is Reyes. We're pretty sure that they took Sam to that palace overlooking the place."

Harry turned, looking with his omnioculars towards the shanty town. Adjusting the zoom, Harry could now make out what appeared to be armed men on patrol. There were more present than the last time he'd been there a few hours ago, but Harry chalked that up to more of them being awake.

"I'm not close enough to help," Harry admitted over the radio. "Who all is with you?"

"It's just me, Alex, and Jonah. Grim got separated from us a couple of hours ago to help out a crewman, and Whitman hasn't been seen since the forest where we met up with Lara."

"Crap. I'm a few hours' walk from you; this place is...", Harry trailed off, releasing the mic as he slowly scanned the area. "Reyes, I found Sam. She's being dragged along by some guy with a spear. There's a long bridge above the shantytown leading to the palace. That's where Sam is being taken."

"Understood, Harry. Thanks for that. Anything else you can tell us?"

"Yeah, it looks like they're all awake. And armed. I'm seeing bows, guns, pickaxes. And a lot of red barrels that are giving me unpleasant feelings."

"Shit. Well, there's no helping it, I guess."

"Alex," Lara's voice cut in. "This radio console's a wreck. There's a hole in the ceiling that's let water in. What do I do now?"

"Well, unless you see a Radio Shack around, you'll need to patch in to the maintenance unit manually on the tower itself," Alex stated nervously. "Problem is, On those old towers they put the maintenance units high up. Like _really_ high up."

"More climbing. Great. Thanks Alex."

"Harry," Reyes' voice came in, "do you see any way for us to get to that palace?"

"Not really. Looks like the bridge has a ton of guards on it, all with machine guns," Harry admitted, sweeping the omnioculars over the bridge. "I'd guess twenty or thirty guys. Definitely not a 'guns blazing' kind of place. If you had someone with a rifle, maybe you could thin the herd."

"Goddammit," Reyes swore.

"I'm not seeing any other way up there short of flying. Even the crane towers don't go anywhere near it. Sorry, Reyes."

"You've been more than helpful, Harry," Jonah's voice cut in. "Thank you for the intel. No, seriously, it's really helpful. Having you on overwatch is keeping us from doing something stupid."

"Any ideas on what you'll be doing?"

"Not yet," Jonah admitted. "Personally, I think we should wait to see what Lara manages to get done with the radio tower. If we can get rescue personnel here, maybe we can get Japanese SDF forces here."

"Good point," Harry replied, omnioculars already scanning the radio tower. Almost instantly, he spotted a figure climbing the tower. Readjusting the zoom, he made out Lara steadily making her way up. "Alex, I'm seeing the maintenance panel you were talking about. It's maybe thirty feet from the top of the tower. Lara is making good pace."

"That's great to hear," Alex returned.

Looking around, Harry did spot something unusual. Halfway between the shanty town and the open air temple rested a structure. It was nestled in the foothills of the mountains, just before a wide plain area. Focusing his zoom, he spotted what appeared to be a Japanese fortress. It's Northern gate was missing, rotted timbers barely attached to rusted hinges swaying in the wind, and ancient, weather-worn banners fluttered in the breeze.

"Reyes, would it be safe to say that if all else fails, we need a secure place to hole up?"

"You would be correct to say that," Reyes replied. "What did you have in mind?"

"Northeast of your position, past the mountain ridge is a old fortress. Gate's gone, but it'd be a lot better than having to camp with cultists on patrol."

"That's an excellent point, Harry," Roth's voice cut in. "While Lara is dealing with the radio tower, you should hook up with the main team. Take Jonah with you to scout it out."

"Not a great idea," Reyes interrupted. "We're currently hiding from the locals; they're patrolling really heavily. There isn't a way to meet up right now."

"Damn. Harry, you be careful, lad. I don't want Lily coming back from the dead and haunting me over this, alright? Like you told Lara, _Be Careful_."

"Every precaution, I got it, Roth," Harry replied before clipping the radio back onto his belt.

Sighing, he looked over the prospective path he'd have to take. The ridgeline extended past the upper portion of the ancient fortress, but looked to be about six miles away. Harry knew that if it was a street, he could walk it in under two hours. Along the ridge, with loose stones and such? Far longer.

'Or you could reapply your invisibility charm and zip there on your broom', a cultured voice wafted into his mind.

"Hello, Salim," Harry answered, looking briefly at his vambrace. "You've been awfully quiet since we landed."

'There are soul magics bound to this place that permeate all,' Salim admitted. 'Those sorceries made attempts to chat difficult. Even now, there is a bit of a disconnect.'

"So, no Slytherin family magics?"

'I am afraid not. At least, not directly. We are too far from our Seat of Power to properly access the direct magics. The incantations and skills are still within me, but the inherent wards and protections, less so.'

"So, no real change for now?"

'Not as such, no,' Salim chuckled into Harry's mind. 'While I wish we had more time to spend on the handling of the blade, we are as prepared as we can be. I do, however, recommend getting your hands on some of the enemy's weapons. While the bow is useful and versatile, it takes many years of training. The weapons used by these cultists seem simpler.'

"Makes sense," Harry admitted. "Any recommendations?"

'As you are still adjusting, I recommend transferring the vambrace to your left hand. Salazar was left handed, and so wore the armor on his right arm to parry weapons. I know that you've been trying to train for both hands, but for now we work with what we know best.'

Harry took a few minutes to transfer the armor, guided by Salim to move the thumb ring. Harry then adjusted the sword sheath so that the handle hung above his right shoulder. Pulling out his Firebolt, he mounted and applied the disillusionment charm before taking off.

Twenty minutes passed before Harry reached the ridge line overlooking the fortress. Peering down, he saw a tall, three sided wall with the only gate being on the Northern edge. Spikes and standards dotted the top of the five meter tall stone wall, and some of the spikes were decorated with skulls and dried-out heads.

Inside the wall stood a five-tier pagoda, the eaves curving up slightly to accommodate the rainfall. The footprint of the pagoda was massive, and Harry began snapping pictures of it as he drifted his broom around it. Finally, Harry drifted down, landing gently before shrinking down his broom and pocketing it.

Eyes closed, he let his senses expand like both Lara and Bill had advised him. The wind whistling faintly over the spikes, the slight flutter of the banners, the cawing of a couple of birds flying overhead all drifted to his waiting ears. Breathing with his mouth slightly open, he tasted the ever present sea salt, along with the faint taste of rotten wood.

Then his eyes snapped open. The sound of rapid footsteps rang in his ears as the ground floor door of the pagoda burst open to reveal an actual, honest-to-goodness samurai.

Harry blinked at the sight. The figure seemed to be almost sniffing the air, smoothly stepping forward. And then he drew his sword and charged directly at Harry.

Harry was almost caught off by this. Had the samurai caught his scent around the disillusionment charm? But Harry, guided by an urge and the whisper in his mind, managed to catch the katana on his vambrace, even as his other hand drew the falcata.

The ring of steel sang across the courtyard as Harry spun away from the samurai, cutting the power to his near-invisibility to reserve his flow. The warrior stalked around Harry, who slowly spun in place to follow the man even as his senses tracked three more samurai emerging from the pagoda.

'Witnesses? Excellent,' came Salim's voice. 'Time for shock and awe. When he next swings, return the swing as if swinging for his sword. Then follow up with the under-strike.'

Harry didn't have to wait long before the samurai's sword came down towards his head in a gleaming arc. Harry stepped forward, slamming his own blade into the strike. With a metallic crack, the blade of the katana detonated, spraying the samurai with shrapnel. Already committed, Harry carried through with his own blow, his blade arcing wide before swinging back inside the very shocked samurai's guard.

The blade bit deep, and time almost seemed to slow down for Harry as he was reminded of the enchantments laid upon the blade. The Piercing Hex enhancement practically parted the iron mail like so much water, and as soon as the blade was biting deeply into the samurai's flesh, the Blasting Hex went off.

With a silent explosion, the warrior's bits were sprayed across the courtyard away fro Harry, the armor having turned to shrapnel even as organs and bone were liquified by the hydrostatic shock of the internal explosion. The three samurai who had emerged earlier had shielded their faces from the blast, but were now drawing swords and carefully advancing.

"Well, _that_ wasn't as effective as we'd like," Harry commented grimly. And then he smirked to himself.

Stepping back slowly, his wand slid down into his left hand. Muttering softly, he cast a couple of charms at the ground where two of the samurai were about to cross, and then one further up from the third.

Two seconds later, the two who were working to flank him stopped, their feet seemingly clamped to the ground by the pair of sticking charms. The third one charged forward, only to hit the third sticking charm. While his feet didn't move, the rest of his body kept moving forward due to momentum.

Harry was not expecting the sickening _crunch_ of the samurai's ankles shattering from a combination of body weight, armor weight, and momentum. And then he _certainly_ wasn't expecting the samurai to cut his ankles off and start _dragging_ himself towards Harry!

Stepping further away, Harry was about to cast a cutting charm when **pain** slashed across his brow. Dropping to his knees, he howled in agony even as he heard a female voice say something in Japanese.

The three samurai stared at the boy, now howling in tortured pain, for what reason they didn't know. And then they heard the voice of their queen say, "No one leaves!" Grinning to themselves, they almost missed the change in the boy.

The boy had stopped howling and had managed to stand up. There was no expression on his face as he sheathed his blade across his back. Bringing his hand back down, he pointed at them, and, his eyes flashing scarlet for a moment, said a single word.

" _ **Burn.**_ "

Suddenly, their masterfully manufactured armor began to heat up. Within two seconds it was a dull gold color. Two more, it was the pink of cherry blossoms. One more, the yellow flame of the sun.

Of course, by this time the three samurai had died from the extreme temperatures.

Harry blinked, breathing heavily. He didn't know what came over him, but the urge had been almost... _primal_ to use his magic that way. Shaking his head, he cast several cooling charms towards the bodies.

Sadly (for Harry) the armors were twisted beyond recognition, the leather and silk bindings flash-cooked away. The only items salvageable were their three swords; unfortunately, the wooden sheaths had gone the way of their owners. So Harry slipped them into his pack's Access Room.

Looking towards the pagoda, he cast a spell to check for life signs. It seemed that the entire building was sort of filled with life, but the readings were somehow muddied. Below the pagoda, however, there were several dozen life signs, all very clearly sensed.

Frowning Harry wondered at this reading.

'Young master,' Salim stated, 'if I may offer a theory? I believe the samurai are some form of undead. They have a kind of a life force, but not enough to properly register with the _Revelio_ incantation. This explains the muddied readings. The clear readings below? If I may be so bold, young master, I believe that we have found the nursery that the cultist was speaking of.'

"Oh. Yeah, I'm not ready for that kind of house cleaning."

'I wouldn't think so, no,' Salim agreed. 'In time, yes. Now? Less so.'

"So what the hell was that fire thing I did?" Harry asked, slowly backing away from the pagoda towards the gate.

"It can be considered the most base form of magic possible, young master. Pure invocation of will. Something rose from deep within you to call that forth. I am thinking that it was sparked by the sudden, heavy use of soul magics that sparked the reaction of pain across your mind. It even blinded me, and that is no mean feat.'

"It might be because we're not quite fully bonded," Harry replied, now clearing the gate as he pulled out his broom once more.

'That is a viable theory. This is a novel experience, so we're bound to find new quirks.'

Still paranoid, Harry mounted his broom and disillusioned himself before managing a steep climb. Once he was about five hundred feet up, he finally allowed his adrenaline to pass. And then he (barely) managed to hold down his gorge at the horrible things he'd once more performed.

Looking around, he saw a pillar of smoke coming from the center of the island. Frowning, he pointed his broom in the direction and pushed hard toward the village.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Writing this was a touch more difficult than I thought. Keeping Harry in a combat zone is proving to be a touch difficult. And I've been working to time Harry's activities with the overall effects of what Lara has been doing. For example, the female voice saying "No one leaves" was timed for when the rescue plane was struck by lightning.  
> One more detail: Harry landed on Yamatai in the middle of the night. At the end of this chapter, it's about noon.


	4. Bad News

Harry pushed hard, realizing that the pillar of smoke was coming from the the village that he'd left Roth in. His Firebolt flew beautifully, streaking through the sky at nearly full speed until he brought it to a stop to hover over the village.

The Eastern ridge face had a new gouge running through it, and several buildings had been crushed by (what Harry assumed) a rescue plane of some sort. Fires burned everywhere from the crash, and Harry could see locals in jackets rushing in, most bearing toolboxes of some sort.

Looking around from his perch, he spotted the smoke of a fire along the Northeastern portion of the cliffs. Easing his way over, he saw Lara landing near a small fire, and Roth limping towards her on a homemade crutch. Harry dipped the broom, pulling up sharply at the opening to the little grotto in the cliff face.

"Harry!" Roth exclaimed, his face lighting up. "I was getting worried about you."

"I'm fine," Harry said, waving off the concern as he pocketed his shrunken broom. "What about you two?"

Lara was still panting heavily. "Plane took out the cliffside village. Had me on the run the whole way. All of it was collapsing."

"I made it up here about an hour ago. Good thing, too," Roth commented, finally sitting down.

"I was on a different frequency," Harry admitted, idly transfiguring a stool to sit on. "What all happened?"

Sipping from her canteen, Lara said, "I made it up the tower, got ahold of the emergency channel with the beacon. I made it down, and managed to create a signal by setting off some old fuel storage. The plane was approaching, and then a voice said in Japanese 'No one leaves'. The storm clouds gathered out of nowhere, and lightning brought down the plane. The pilot was killed by cultists; I assume he managed to parachute down."

Lara's radio crackled to life. "Mayday! Mayday! This is co-pilot Jessop of aircraft Nautilus 177 Alpha…"

"Another pilot!" Lara exclaimed, grabbing her radio. "Hello? Can you hear me?"

Over the radio came, "I got badly hurt when I landed and need urgent aid! Is anyone there?"

"Captain Jessop? Do you read?"

"I’ve deployed a smoke signal. Please respond."

"Damn it, he can’t hear me. I have to get to him," Lara stated, placing the radio back on her belt.

"No."

"Roth, his signal's just over there. I have to help him," Lara stated, already turning.

"No, Lara," Roth stated, putting his hand on her shoulder. "We've got our own people to worry about."

"Roth, he's here because of me! I can't just abandon him!"

"Sometimes you’ve got to make sacrifices, Lara. You can’t save everyone."

"I know about sacrifices", Lara stated defiantly.

"No," Roth replied in a kindly tone, "you know about loss. Sacrifice is a choice you make, loss is a choice made for you."

Lara paused for a moment, before saying, "I can’t choose to let him die, Roth."

Lara turned and left, rappelling down a rope line. Roth turned to Harry, asking, "What about you, lad? What's your move?"

Harry sighed, sipping from his own canteen. "The fortress I spotted is out. Samurai are there, of all things. My... magics say they're probably some form of undead. Sam is in the palace above the shanty town. Not sure where Reyes' group is, and Whitman and Grim are still missing."

"That's not good. And Reyes' group is over near the shanty town. Great, cultists and samurai. Just what we need."

Harry shrugged at the comment. He knew that he was pushing his physical reserves, and would start making mistakes fairly soon due to exhaustion. "Honestly, I really don't know what to do next. I don't know how to make maps, I'm not a great fighter."

"I suggest," Roth began kindly, "that you check out the crash site. There may be some supplies there that our people can use."

Harry shook his head at that. "Unless I'm doing hit and run, that's out. The village is crawling with cultists. Looked mostly like scavengers, if the tool boxes are any indication."

"Damn," Roth replied, rubbing at his chin.

"I think," Harry slowly began, "that the cultists are onto something with the storms blocking people from leaving. It explains all the the shipwrecks and downed planes. Undead samurai confirms the magical element. My magics also told me that there are some sort of soul magics at work here; that fired up when the storm suddenly gathered. I just wish I could put it all together."

Roth frowned, sitting down heavily. "That magic's involved complicates matters. Although it does seem to confirm your theory about Himiko being some sort of magical."

"Yeah..." Harry trailed off, his mind working hard. "Although if... If Himiko was a witch who controlled the weather, who's controlling it now?" he asked aloud. "That cultist mentioned... the fire ritual. Fire ritual for... choosing the right girl? A ritual... to bring back Himiko? That can't be right," Harry muttered wracking his brain around the scant details he had.

"Maybe the undead samurai play into it all," Roth commented, stirring the fire.

"It just doesn't make any damn sense," Harry muttered, stalking back and forth as best he could.

"At any rate," Roth interrupted, "it's not getting us anywhere just yet. We need to focus on our people. That means finding a good place to hole up, food, water, and so on. It's unfortunate about the pilots, but that's just where our priorities have to lay."

Goddammit," Harry muttered. "I guess that I'll need to find... Shh!"

Roth hunkered down, back into the hole in the cliffside as Harry laid his body against the side of the mouth of the hole. Voices began floating in.

"I'm telling you Brother. The outsider woman came _this_ way!"

"I don't think she survived the plane crashing," the second voice admitted. "Fuck, I _hope_ she died in the damn plane crash. Every one of our brothers at the radio bunker are dead!"

"You think I don't know that?" the first one asked. "First was Nikolai's group, and then the watch group on the ridgeline. How the fuck did she _crush_ Antonine like that?!"

"I don't know, Brother. I just hope that the bitch is dead."

The pair walked over to the edge of the cliffe, checking the line where, not ten minutes prior, Lara had descended. Harry's eyes narrowed in thought before he picked up a rock.

Sliding out his wand, he concentrated. Harry was _fairly_ certain he had a good handle on the theory of the spell, but this would be the first time he'd actually try it.

" ** _Portus_** ," he softly incanted. The stone glowed briefly before returning to it's normal grey.

Readjusting himself, Harry leaned out carefully. The two men were still silently conversing as they looked down over the village. Taking aim, Harry threw the stone at the man with the bow.

Instantly, the man disappeared in an odd swirl. The other man unslung a submachine gun, and was pointing it around randomly, trying to figure out what had happened.

Roth watch as Harry's face went expressionless. His wand came up as he drew the sword over his shoulder. He watched Harry cast something even as he stepped into the open.

Almost instantly, the man began unloading at Harry. Harry's magical shield took the bullets, the lead rounds dropping at his feet as he determinedly stalked forward. Once Harry got close enough, the sword swung from Harry's right, severing the sling strap just before biting deeply into the man's chest.

Roth watched in horror as the man's torso silently evaporated, the chunky mist blasting out past the cliff face even as Harry snapped his wand back into it's holster and grabbed onto the forestock of the submachine gun, keeping it from falling away.

Turning away from the carnage, Roth could see Harry's face and neck. Harry was clearly holding down his gorge, even as his steps back to the fire were certain and steady.

"Sorry about that," Harry gritted out past clenched jaw. "Couldn't let them get to you."

"That's alright, Harry," Roth quietly stated. "What did you do to that first one?"

"Portkey," Harry admitted, his jaw slowly unclenching. "I've been reading up on the theory of it; figured it might be a good way to send people away."

"Where'd you send him?"

“With luck, he’s over by the fortress. Without luck, scattered across the island.”

“Hell of a way to make someone go away,” Roth admitted, “but damned if it didn’t work.”

“And I have no way of knowing if it actually, _safely_ worked,” Harry said, groaning as he sat back on his stool.

“At least it kept us safe. And the sword?”

“Piercing and blasting hexes.”

“Armor piercing and explosive. At least the explosive part is quiet, unlike a missile.”

“Good point,” Harry agreed, even as he cycled open the action on the submachine gun he’d nabbed. “Huh. I guess these cultists know maintenance. Whole action is oiled, firing pin looks good and,” Harry continued, peering down the barrel as he held it up to the sky, “looks like it’s generally kept clean.”

“That _is_ interesting,” Roth agreed. “So, what’s your plan, lad?”

Harry sighed, closing the bolt on the weapon even as he began counting his ammunition. “Answers. I need answers. Cultists, a fire ritual, the storms, the samurai, a sun queen resurrection... It’s all related somehow, and we need answers if we’re going to make it off this island. We can’t leave until it’s figured. I’m guessing that any craft, be it by sea or air, will be brought down by a storm that comes out of nowhere. That kind of precision takes a mind guiding it. I just have to figure out _who_.”

“I know what Lara said she saw. How do you figure the precision?”

“According to Lara, the storms gathered out of nowhere, lightning struck the plane. And look,” Harry gestured out, “no storm. Clear skies. Clouds come in like that, they tend to stick around, yeah? And then there was that cultist. Boats getting crushed by storms out of nowhere? More precision.”

“I see your point, Harry. What about your broom? Any range limit on it?”

“No,” Harry admitted with a sigh running his fingers through his hair, “but it’s just a matter of time before I get noticed by whatever’s driving the storms. And as good as the Firebolt is, it’s still just a broom. I really don’t want to destruction test the environmental charms on it by riding it through a wall made of storm, you know?”

“I get you. Unfortunately, I am out of my depth here. My focus is on keeping us alive long enough to get to a point where we can leave. The magic stuff...”

“Is for a specialist,” Harry admitted. “And like it or not, that’s me. Oh, we are so fucked,” Harry ended, banished his stool as he stood up.

“Got a plan?”

“Nope,” Harry stated. “I have a notion. And that’s about it, really. I have a wand, a sword, and a bit of armor. I know that my new shield spell can stop bullets, but only for a little bit; it’s _very_ power intensive. And I’ve been awake for well over a full day now. I’d like to rest, but I have too much shit to get done.”

“I agree, it’s not ideal,” Roth agreed. “But we work with what we have, yeah?”

“Yup. And right now, I have a notion. No idea where Grim or Whitman are, so I’ll leave that for now. But Sam is in the palace, and that’s where Lara is heading. You get together with the others, figure out your plan from there. I’ll be out helping Lara.”

“You sure about this lad?” Roth asked, slowly getting to his feet.

“Sure. After all, in Britain, I’m a hero, right?” Harry asked, a smirk on his face. “And if Sam is a descendant of Himiko, doesn’t that make her a princess?”

“And heroes save princesses,” Roth responded with a hearty laugh. “Say, you got any other goodies in that bag of yours?”

“Medical potions, food, a suit of armor that I have no idea how to wear. A lot of gear, but nothing that’ll help more than I’m already using. At least the sword is easy. Swish-swish-stab. It’s not like it’s a fighter jet or anything.”

Ten minutes later, Harry had managed to invisibly cut across the bowl containing the village on his broom. He figured he’d keep using it until the wards noticed him; the advantage was too great _not_ to use until then.

Pushing hard, he finally managed to find Lara’s trail. Blood, flames, and broken bodies were an easy enough trail to follow from the sky.

And then he spotted her. She was trying to ford a shallow river, but was making poor time moving between the ancient posts that had at one point supported a bridge.

The post she had been bracing against broke off, and Lara tumbled into the white water of the river, swept away towards what appeared to be riverbanks lines with jagged metal.

Zipping along the surface, Harry tried to keep an eye out for Lara, but the wild sprays of water kept her out of view. Finally, he spotted her blast a section of debris out of her way with a shotgun before the water slammed her through the open hatch of an airplane resting over a waterfall. The entire plane shook with her impact, and Harry could see the metal holding the plane up slowly beginning to buckle.

Over the roar of rushing water, he barely heard the breaking of glass and a long scream from below. Diving hard, Harry spotted Lara tumbling down, shards of thick glass falling alongside her as she struggled with a backpack. A pilot chute popped out, slowing her descent briefly until the cords snapped, leaving it fluttering uselessly behind her. He watched her struggle more, until a second pilot chute popped out, deploying the main parachute.

Trailing behind her (and not wanting to distract her), Harry watched Lara pull on the control vanes, skillfully guiding herself around trees until a crosswind picked up, hauling her sideways towards a cliff.

Suddenly, Lara was dangling from only one of the supports, and Harry managed to pick out Lara struggling with the other clip until she finally freed herself from the now-rogue parachute.

Harry could see that Lara had managed to aim herself towards a stand of tall trees, but was falling too fast for his tastes. “ _ **Arresto Momentum**_ ,” he chanted, instantly slowing her fall as he pushed himself forward.

Grabbing onto her forearm, Harry pushed his magic _hard_ into the Firebolt, outright willing it to slow their descent. Almost a minute later, the pair landed heavily on the forest floor, Harry putting himself between Lara and the ground. The shanty town was just visible past the tree line.

The pair laid there on the forest floor, panting heavily until Lara realized that she was on top of Harry; he had taken the impact for her, and probably didn’t even realize that he had her cleavage in his face at that moment. Rolling off of him, she lay on her back, and reveled in being alive for the moment.

“You okay?” Harry groaned out, slowly sitting up.

“I think so,” Lara replied before gripping her left side, gasping in agony. “Or not,” she groaned out.

Harry lifted the hem of her shirt to see some sort of puncture. Frowning, he noted that it went _through_ the left side of her abdomen. “Wish you mentioned this before you went after the pilot,” Harry commented, laying down his pack before fishing through a pocket for a magical medical kit.

“Didn’t want to be a bother,” Lara gritted out. “Besides, I was fine.”

“Ah, my brand of ‘fine’,” Harry quipped, rustling through the potions. “Fine which means ‘I’m not dead yet, it’s not slowing me down, don’t worry about me’.”

“Pretty much,” Lara painfully chuckled out as Harry helped her to sit against a tree.

“I’m not going to lie,” Harry began, “this is going to hurt. First, drink this; it’s a blood replenisher.” Lara did. “And now the ugly bit. All the way through?” Lara nodded. Harry sighed before placing his wand tip at the front of the wound. “ _ **Aguamenti**_.”

Slowly, Harry forced a gradual stream of water through the wound. Fresh and dead blood mixed with some sort of muck were slowly pushed out of the wound on her back. Lara gasped, but managed to hold herself still through the pain of cleaning it all out. Once the water ran clear, Harry cut off the water, letting her body push the rest out even as he bit the cork out of another potion. Just before the wound closed, Harry shoved the mouth of the potion bottle into the wound, casting a spell to force the potion into the wound.

Lara jerked at the sudden, incredibly bizarre sensation as she _felt_ the muscle wall of her abdomen close up, fully repaired. The wound itself sealed up as soon as Harry pulled the mouth of the bottle away.

Sitting heavily, Harry said, “That should do it for now. You’ll want to see a proper healer after all this, but at least the muck got cleared.”

“Thank you, Harry,” Lara said as she pulled the hem of her shirt back down. “God, I am so tired.”

Harry pulled out a pair of potion vials. “Pepper-Up potion. One each, they’ll keep us going for at least a few hours. Drink it, then keep your mouth closed until your ears stop steaming. And if we had a cold or flu, this’ll cure it.” They both did, and Lara was startled at the peculiar sensation. “Girding potion. Enhances endurance; should help with the exhaustion.” Lara _somehow_ managed to choke down the vile mixture, but once she had, she felt her exhaustion fleeing. “Last is the Vitamix potion. It enhances reflexes; in case the other two haven’t quite gotten rid of our tiredness, this will even the score.” They choked down the last potion, and suddenly Lara felt as if she’d had a full night’s rest.

“So, thanks for the save, Harry,” Lara said, looking him over. He looked unwounded, if dirty. He also looked (somehow) a bit broader in the chest than when she'd seen him that morning.

“Anytime,” Harry returned. “Listen, I have a theory.”

Lara heard him out as he repeated what he’d told Roth. Blinking rapidly, she said, “That’s a lot of theory, Harry. What do we do about it?”

“No idea,” he admitted, sitting against a different tree. “We just don’t have enough information yet. So I figure to focus on what we _can_ do. We rescue Sam, and keep an eye out for the others. Roth is getting ahold of Reyes, so there’s that.”

“True. Any idea where she is? She managed to get to me over a radio she stole that she’s in an old palace.”

Harry stood, then helped Lara to her feet before walking over to the tree line. Pointing upwards, Lara saw the palace atop a mesa overlooking the shanty town.

“Really?” she asked, despair filling her voice.

“Yup. Saw her getting dragged in there while you were climbing the radio tower.”

“Damn. Any way of getting in?”

Harry fished out his omnioculars. Setting them for replay, he handed them over. “None of the towers go anywhere near the palace. Only way in is a pair of bridges, and those have guards with machine guns.”

“I’m seeing. Damn.”

“I saw a _possible_ way up, but it involves getting to the far end of the shanty down and climbing up. Looks like the bridges extend to a stand. A bit of rope climbing, a bit of cliff climbing, and that’ll lead you to the beginning of the first bridge. From there, well... The second bridge is the one full of armed guards.”

“Blast,” Lara muttered, lowering the magical binoculars. “Say, can your broom take two?”

“Not easily, and with the storms popping up out of nowhere, I don’t want to sacrifice the maneuverability,” Harry admitted.

Lara sighed, leaning against a tree. “The hard way, then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! We ended last chapter with the rescue plane crashing, and this one ends at the beginning of the Shanty Town zone. This story is zipping right along!
> 
> Harry is indeed firing on all cylinders, both physically and mentally. An explanation for that will be forthcoming, I assure you. Also, the descriptions of the potions are from the Harry Potter wiki. Some are from the books, some are from the video games (which I have not played). Just so everyone is aware.
> 
> As always, comments and constructive criticisms are welcome! No, seriously. It really does help.


	5. Adventure Hurts!

Harry sighed, shaking his head even as he looked over the shanty town. Thankfully, the potions had mostly cleared his head (but what he would've given for a mug of Dobby's coffee), so his eyes were trying to take in all of the details.

"It looks like we'll have to clear that gate under the bridge," Harry commented. "Of course, there'll be cultists _everywhere_ , so we'll need to be ready for that."

Lara nodded, checking over her equipment. Her bow was passable, as was the new assault rifle she'd managed to assemble. The shotgun was alright, and the pistol was serviceable. "I think I'm alright for weapons, Harry. What about you?"

Finally looking over, she saw Harry using his wand to cut a channel into the underside of the forestock of his submachine gun. A few spells produced a pair of metallic clips, and Harry then snapped the handle of his wand into the clips. All in all, Lara thought that the wand's position rather resembled a bayonet. "What's that about, Harry?"

"Point casting," Harry replied, frowning at his meager supply of ammunition. "Salim recommended it. Since I've been practicing with point casting, being able to conjure an emergency shield while I'm shooting might be a good thing."

"That's a good idea," Lara admitted, "especially for a more than thousand year old entity."

Harry shrugged at that. "Salim's been observing through my eyes. Roth teaching me shooting, the cultists and their shooting stances... He's picking up on all of this really quickly. And at this point, I'll take any good suggestions I can get."

"Fair point. Shall we then?"

"So, blazing assault, or stealthily sneaking?"

Lara cocked her head, considering this as her eyes roamed over the ramshackle town. "If we can get over there, by the helicopter at the eastern end, that's a good high ground where we can thin the herd. It's a fairly defensible spot while we wait for them to come to us."

"Right. Makes sense. Although..." Harry trailed off for a moment as he surveyed the potential battlefield through his omnioculars. "See all the red barrels? I think they're fuel barrels. A few piercing hexes should get them to leak everywhere. We can set them on fire from the high ground."

"Excellent idea, Harry. Shall we go?"

Twenty minutes of carefully picking their way through, the pair snuck into the frame of the helicopter. The duo searched through the craft, which appeared to have been haphazardly cleared out. The medical kit, for example, still held bottles of what appeared to be antihistamines, antibiotics, and a couple of sealed rolls of gauze. The pair split that, tucking it all into their moke-skin pouches.

Harry searched the (bizarrely) still fresh corpse of the pilot. He managed to dig out a still-fuelled Zippo lighter, as well as a pilot's survival kit. Sifting through it, he handed off the first aid supplies to Lara, while keeping ahold of the multitool and the chemical light sticks. Lara promptly (somehow) attached the lighter to her bow.

Preparing themselves, Lara pulled out her radio.

"Roth, can you hear me?"

Over the radio, Roth's voice crackled in. "Lara! Are you okay?"

"We're fine."

"You don’t sound fine to me."

Lara rolled her eyes at that. "I’m _fine_ , Roth. So is Harry."

"Where are you, girl?"

"We're in that shanty town Harry mentioned, near the fortified palace."

"I’m still coming down the hill. How did you two get there so fast?"

"Long story."

"I can see the town from here… Are you near that large gate?"

"We're heading towards it."

"I see. Be careful, the both of you."

Lara placed the radio back on her belt even as she nodded to Harry, who pulled the door open and snapped up his submachine gun.

To see nobody. Not a single person could be seen in the shack town. The two slowly stepped out, weapons at the ready even as they began fully recognizing the stench of the crude village.

"Too quiet."

"Yeah," Harry muttered back nervously. "Where the hell is everyone?"

"It's the outsider! Get her!"

Harry snapped his wand out of the holder, snapping off piercing hexes through the various red barrels, gratified that liquid was pouring out of the inch-wide holes. Lara, meanwhile, had slid over to behind a makeshift barricade, and was smoothly sending arrows at the cultists.

Harry, his immediate task complete, ran and slid behind another barricade, slapping his wand back into the groove under his submachine gun. Popping up slightly, he squeezed the trigger for a moment, sending a few rounds at a cultist. Red fluid fountained out of the man's chest, and Harry forced himself into a state of calm over it, gritting his teeth even as he kept pulling the trigger at cultist after cultist.

"Lara! Two!" Harry called out, rolling over to her position.

Lara leaned away from the barricade as Harry rolled in front of her, his shield spell up to catch bullets as Lara fired flaming arrows at three different pools as they had agreed in advance. With a deafening WHOOMF!, each of the pools of fluid ignited even as vapors captured in barrels went off, catching several cultists in the deadly hail of shrapnel.

From the left, they heard, "Hey, move carefully, she’s using fire! And there's two of them!"

"Holy shit. Alright, get around… we can catch them!" they heard someone call out from a man trying to run up armed with only a machete.

"Go in from the side!" called out the first voice, even as Harry saw a bottle flying towards them.

Jerking himself fully upright, Harry's hand snapped out, catching the bottle with a flaming bit of cloth stuffed into the mouth. Thanking Oliver Wood for three years' worth of Quidditch drills, Harry turned with the catch and slung the bottle at the ramp leading to their position. Four cultists were caught in the inferno as the molotov cocktail exploded.

"Holy shit, it's just a girl and a boy!" one of the cultists called out.

"Well, that girl and boy are kicking our asses!"

"Just keep at it! They can't stop us all."

Harry, now out of ammunition for the gun, had once more put his wand in his hand. With Samir whispering in his mind, Harry began chanting in ancient, dead languages from the Arabian peninsula, sections of Africa, and occasionally something with it's roots in Old English. Spells flashed out hard and fast Piercing hexes that expanded on impact. Spells to control the shapes as well as animate the fires. Innovative use of the banishing and summoning charms to deflect and redirect arrows as well as slam thrown molotovs back into the faces of the cultists. A snap engorgement charm altered several of Lara's arrows into projectiles the size of ballista bolts. A cooking charm (the Nonstick Surface Charm) learned from Molly Weasley drastically reduced the friction on several ramps and sets of stairs. A spell to heat metal, forcing bullets to prematurely fire inside of their magazines.

Finally, silence reigned across the battlefield. Smoke was slowly dissipating in the sea breeze as the fires began guttering out, the dead and wounded littering the ground and scorched buildings. The pair finally let out a relieved sigh, stretching slightly as they paused to let the ringing in their ears subside.

Harry slumped down hard by the little campfire, panting heavily. His forearms _burned_ from channeling so much magic in so little time, and he was nearly wiped out, even with the potions running through his veins.

"Harry, are you... Are you okay?" Lara asked nervously.

"I think so, Harry panted out. "Why?"

"Because you have three arrows sticking out of you, and what looks like a couple of bullet wounds."

Harry blinked dully at that, then looked down. Sure enough, there were two arrows in his chest, and one in his left thigh. Further examination revealed a bloody crease a couple of inches below the arrow in his leg from a graze, as well as a pair of oozing spots on his right calf and the right side of his abdomen.

"Huh."

"We're going to have to get all of those out, at the very least."

Raising his wand, Harry cast the vanishing spell on the arrows. Instantly, he regretted his choice as one of the arrows had penetrated his left lung. Digging into his bag, Harry pulled out a face mask and a pair of potions. After drinking one potion, he smeared the inside of the mask with the gelatinous other potion, and then donned the mask.

"While we were heading here," Harry explained, "I'd been reading up on medical charms and potions. This one," he continued, holding up the first potion, "temporarily stops internal organ bleeding. The second one heals lung wounds from the inside while I breath."

"You've done your research," Lara admitted. "And the bullets?"

Another vanishing spell went off, and Harry said, "Bullets are gone. I'll pour a drop of dittany on each one; that'll have it done. What about you?"

Lara blushed slightly at the question. "I... There's something I can do in addition to the pulse. I always thought it was some kind of chi healing stuff, like martial artists claim to use? Anyways, I think that the magic I have allows me to push out bullets and such, mostly healing the wounds. Internal organs are harder to do, which is why you had to treat my stomach. I'm pretty sure I had a punctured spleen; the magic kept me going even after I should have died from it."

"Huh. Useful," Harry admitted as he dosed his wounds. Harry slowly rose, stretching as he felt the new skin shift. Finally, he pulled off and tucked away the mask, putting his medical supplies away. "We'll have to trade tips later. Right now, we have a princess to save."

Lara giggled at that. "Sam, a princess. Oh, she'll love that. Two heroes, not in shining armor, coming to the rescue of the kidnapped princess."

Harry smirked in return. "In Britain, I'm a hero with a magical forehead. So why _shouldn't_ I be rescuing a princess alongside my comic relief?"

"Hey, now," Lara laughed out, "Alex isn't here. That's his job."

"True," Harry admitted, slinging his pack back on. "You do know he has a _huge_ crush on you, yeah?"

"Yeah, I know," Lara admitted with a sigh as the two began walking down the steps towards the gate. "I just... How do I let him down easy? He's a nice guy; I don't want to hurt him."

Harry shrugged. "Beats me. Never had a girlfriend. Closest was Ginny, who was a fangirl."

"Oh, _you're_ no help," Lara said, playfully bumping Harry's shoulder with her own.

"Oi, I'm thirteen!" Harry exclaimed, his voice full of mock outrage. "I'm _allowed_ to be clueless about women! Unlike you, miss 'I'm twenty-four and a college graduate'."

"Fine," Lara mock whined, bringing up her assault rifle as they advanced, rifling through the pockets of the dead as they passed. Harry was delighted that he finally had several magazines' worth of ammunition in his pocket, and Lara was pleased that her quiver was once again full.

As they approached the open gate, the late afternoon sun pounded down on them even as it made the vile aroma of open sewer worse. Peering around, the village once more seemed devoid of life apart from the occasional boar that would run past.

"Huh. Between the gunfire and the flares they were setting off, I would've thought there'd be more people around."

Lara sighed at that. "Don't say things like that, Harry. You'll curse us."

As they entered the cleared area before the gate, the gate itself slammed down, sharp, jagged metal spears digging deep into the earth below it.

"There that bitch is! Kill her!" came a shout from behind them.

Harry and Lara spun, darting to cover behind some heavy crates. Harry was shooting a barrel to take out three archers when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lara slam the blade of her climbing axe into the back of a machete wielder's neck, dropping him instantly. With his left hand, he animated the fire to sweep across the top of a path, setting more people ablaze as his submachine gun peppered the cultists rushing up the center towards them.

Three minutes later, their enemies were dead, and Lara and Harry were unwounded. Working quickly, more cultists were looted before Harry and Lara cranked the gate back up.

Once through, they were witness to a massive pit. Raw sewage, waste matter, and so forth all mixed together in the disgusting bowl to produce an aroma that had the both of them gagging.

"God, how can they live like this?" Lara asked.

"I would rather... be _anywhere_ else right now," Harry admitted, wishing he'd gotten far enough into his spell research to learn a spell that would protect them from the truly vile aroma of a cesspit during summer in the tropics.

Once they finished wading through the muck (sadly, there was no other path towards the area they were heading for), Harry cast cleaning and drying charms on them as they advanced. The hallway opened up to reveal the base of a tower. Peering up, they saw someone using a zip line to get from one tower to another, even as cultists were running up to the base of the tower to climb a ladder.

"Get yer hands off me, ya bloody bastards!" came Grim's shout from above.

"Hey! Need some help up here! A prisoner’s escaped!" one cultist above shouted.

"Come on, let’s go!" another shouted.

"Fuck you! Bail yer head!" Grim shouted back.

"Easy, old man! Take it easy! Oh godammit! Get up there!"

  
"Oh my god, Grim!" Lara exclaimed before pulling out her bow, picking off the one closest to Grim's platform even as Harry sent a piercing hex at the one beneath him. The pair landed heavily at the base of the tower, completely still.

"Oh, you want some of this too? Ya fuckin’ scunner!" Grim shouted as another cultist was thrown from the upper platform. The pair watched as Grim shuffled to the edge, shouting, "Lara, up here!"

"Grim, you escaped!" Lara called up as she tested the ladder.

"Watch it, kids, you’ve got company!" Grim shouted, pointing back the way the way the pair came.

"Light her up!" came the call from atop the hallway that Lara and Harry had entered through.

"Lara, they got fuckin’ dynamite… take cover!"

"Outsider, give it up!" a cultist shouted.

"Not a chance, you bastards!" Lara shouted as she and Harry picked cover. Harry idly noted that there seemed to be a _lot_ of really heavy, tough crates just lying around the island.

Arrows came flying in, and while Lara returned fire with her pistol, Harry focused on what Grim had mentioned. Sure enough, one of the cultists threw something that hissed at them. Harry scrambled to the side, counting down the seconds. Exactly four seconds later, the dynamite went off.

Waiting for another, Harry prepared his wand. It flew out, Harry jumped up, snatching the stick of explosive out of the air to whirl and throw it into the hallway that the cultists were above. And then, aiming his wand, he targeted the descending stick, speaking, "Lara, get cover! _**Engorgio**_."

Instantly, the stick grew from a foot long to nearly twelve feet, and the now massive, tree trunk size stick slammed into the structure before detonating.

The entire building structure was sheared off, chunks of metal spinning away, scything apart cultists who were running up to join the melee, whole wooden beams shattering into shrapnel, large pieces having been hurled with enough force to actually penetrate the base of the tower.

Silence once again reigned. Lara slowly raised her head, her awed gaze sweeping across the carnage. Everything from their cover to the massive cesspit was gone, and bits of debris still rained down in that direction.

"What the hell was that, Harry?" she asked shakily.

"Engorgement charm," Harry replied, brushing splinters off his clothes. "Standard Book of Spells, Grade Two."

"You get taught that in your second year?" Lara demanded, awe in her voice. "And that doesn't sound like something that would make something _explode_ , Harry."

"Ah. I just made the dynamite bigger," Harry admitted. "I may have overdone it, which _can_ lead to an engorged item exploding. I _may_ have ended up increasing the output. Just a bit."

"Kids, you're alive!" Grim shouted down.

"Just barely…," Lara called up. "Where are the others?"

"Locked up inside… They got captured trying to find a way to get to Sam. But I know where they are. Get up here and we’ll get em out together."

Lara and Harry looked at the ladder, now flung off of the platform thanks to the explosion. "We can’t climb up there from here."

"Ahh, damn it. Well, they got some kinda setup for haulin’ cargo. Maybe you two can use it to come around the other side?"

Harry looked up and around. The massive pulley system did indeed thread around to above where they were, and the closest point was atop a tower a few hundred meters away.

"Alright. We're on our way."

Harry sighed, still looking at all of the climbing. "Nothing's ever easy."

"Doesn't seem that way," Lara agreed. looking at the path. "Just try not to overpower dynamite in the future, yeah?"

"I'll try," Harry chuckled out, "but no guarantees."

"Fair, I suppose. Ideas?"

Harry took a moment to ponder what he could do. Lara was clearly limited to climbing, but he still had his broom. And the skies were clear, and he had plenty of landing zones in case of storm.

Sighing, he replied, "I think our best bet is to stick together. Once we clear ourselves a path, we can get you onto the crane system at the top of the tower, and I'll hop onto my broom to provide support with my wand. My broom can hit high speeds with extreme cornering and nearly instant stopping, so I can thread the needle on top of these towers and do hit and run tactics while disillusioned. If there's nobody shooting at us, I might be able to grab Grim, or you, and wallow my Firebolt down to a safe spot."

"That... is probably the best possible plan we have," Lara admitted.

"Also, I think that the tower we're under is the closest one to the first bridge," Harry added, pointing up. Lara looked over the nearly forgotten 'rescue path' as Harry continued with, "If we can get up there, we can get Grim out while getting you on the path to the palace. Once I get Grim to safety, I can swing back up there and help you get in."

"Sounds good," Lara admitted, shaking her head ruefully at entirely missing most of that while Harry was keeping his head on properly.

The duo crossed the little river, noting that the cesspit's smell had been greatly reduced with a layer of wood scrap. Lara scouted their route and, after teaching Harry how to scramble up walls, began climbing.

During their ascent, Lara asked, "How are you doing it, Harry? How are you keeping your head through all of this?"

She heard Harry sigh below her as they climbed. "I think my life has been in danger almost a dozen times at Hogwarts," he huffed out, his words given an odd cadence because of the effort of climbing. "Every year there's some sort of bizarre series events that leads to me nearly dying at the end of the school year."

"Have you... Unf!" Lara exclaimed as she cleared a jump. "Have you considered a different school?"

"Oof! Not until this summer when Slipshard mentioned tutors," Harry admitted, breathing hard. "Not a bad idea, except that I'd miss my friends."

"It's true that socialization is important," Lara admitted as she clambered up a ladder, "but safety is kind of moreso."

"I can see that, Harry admitted as he paused a moment to let his eyes wander over their path before pulling out the Polaroid and snapping several pictures. As he put them away, he said, "I have to wonder what Yamatai would look like if someone went and fixed it all up."

"It would be beautiful," Lara admitted, casting her gaze up at what she could see of the ruined palace. "Pricey, but gorgeous. Pull out all of the cultist stuff, fix everything up, and this would be a perfect vacation resort."

Finally reaching another set of crates ('Really?!' thought Harry), they peered over at the massive, windmill powered crate system atop the gantries. Men scrambled back and forth, their shouts indecipherable at the distance.

"More cultists," Lara groaned out. "Ideas? Well, apart from strategically killing them all."

"I have a couple, but they're not good," Harry admitted. "I get the feeling that peace isn't an option here. And I don't have a rifle that'll make this range. Spells get a bit unreliable after so many feet. And I can't use the engorgement charm this high up; one of your arrows would become a spear that could break something. And we need everything still running to get to Grim."

"I was afraid you were going to say that."

"Ideas from you?"

Lara paused for a moment, then said, "Stick and move. Advance from cover to cover, adjust to cover each others' flanks as we take them out. If they're near an edge, use that banisher of yours to push them off."

Harry blinked, then frowned. "Can't believe I forgot about that," he muttered. "I can't... Dammit, there's too much here making me forget basic stuff," he admitted aloud. "I have an idea, but it isn't something we can rely on. So we'll stick with your plan until we get up there."

Slowly, gradually, they made their way forward, three hundred feet above the ground.

"The outsider is here! Warn the others!"

Gunfire rained down on their positions, bullets sparking off of crates and sheets of metal as Lara returned fire with her assault rifle.

And then she heard Harry utter the fateful word.

" _ **Expelliarmus**_!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Writing combat that I've played (over and over and over again) in a video game, but adding in a magical element, is a challenge. Harry is honestly proving to be a huge game changer here, mostly because he actually has less to overcome than Lara does. I recall someone doing a count, and by the end of third year Harry's life had been in danger about nine times at Hogwarts. I'm playing this as Harry being a bit better adjusted to being forced to defend himself than Lara starts off as.  
> Thankfully, I am not (yet) popping Harry up as a magical powerhouse. He's still a teenager, still has a limited repertoire of spells. The extra spell knowledge provided by Salim (the Bracer of Slytherin) is something that I'd planned for from the beginning. Nothing overpowering, but rather just an increase in options.


	6. Making Steady Headway

  
A cultist's rifle ripped out of the man's hands to slap firmly into Harry's grip. Smoothly sliding it into place (and thanking _whoever_ that most everyone was using the same model of submachine gun), Harry dropped that cultist with his own rifle, and then two of his friends.

Lara, meanwhile, wasn't idle either. Short bursts from her assault rifle dropped the few cultists in elevated spots, keeping them a bit safer while Harry dealt with the cultists on the other side of the windmill.

Harry's gun ran out of ammunition, so he dropped it. Focusing hard, pushing a truly prodigious amount of magic through his wand, he shouted, " _ **Accio Weapons**_!"

Harry then slammed himself down behind the barricade he'd been using for cover as fourteen firearms _raced_ through the air at him, impacting off of the crate before hitting the steel plate of the bridge. Over fifty bottles sailed over his head, slamming into the wall far behind the pair, wastefully spraying the wall with flammable liquid.

From there, clearing the top of the windmill was pretty easy for the pair. Lara closed in with her shotgun, while Harry used his banisher to knock cultists off of the platform that stood more than fifty meters in the air.

Both panted heavily, triumphant smiles on their faces as they lightly hugged. Parting, Harry said, "Okay, there's the gondola. It leads to that platform next to the one we were under earlier."

"Got it," Lara panted out, stretching as she reloaded her weapons. "I'll go up, you go across on the broom. I'll draw their attention if Grim's not alone, you snipe from the air."

"Perfect," Harry said, smiling as he pulled out his broom. Then he frowned in consideration. "Actually, with the speed of the cable, it should take you about fifteen minutes to get there. I'll prep something for 'just in case'. If it works, should be able to deal most of it at once."

"What is it?" Lara asked curiously.

"A mistake," Harry admitted. "Magical stuff can be _dangerous_ when mishandled. So I plan to use the 'what not to do' that we learn at Hogwarts offensively. Might kill them all, might turn everyone into honey badgers. There's just no telling short of doing."

"Sounds dangerous," Lara admitted.

"It is," Harry shrugged, "but I don't want to repeat another big fight. We might not get as lucky, you know?"

"Right. I'll head over, and I'll wait for your signal."

Ten minutes later, Harry had finished. The container was actually _trembling_ , even under a stasis charm. He fixed it to the shaft of his broom with a sticking charm, recast the disillusionment, and quickly flew over to the other gondola tower.

Flitting about, he spotted Grim struggling with about forty cultists. Unfortunately, he couldn't get a shot to clear the path for Grim. At least they seemed to be threatening him, rather than trying to dismember him.

Grim struggled forward just as Lara hopped down from the gondola carriage. "It’s a trap, lass! Show ’em yer teeth, Lara! Give ’em hell!" he shouted, even as a cultist grabbed him, trying to drag him back.

Harry knew that this would take split second timing. Detaching the container, he threw it high, straight up before diving hard, launching a cutting charm at the base of the neck of the cultist that Grim was struggling with. The cultist dropped, and Harry slammed on the (supposedly the world's finest) advanced braking charm on his Firebolt. Coming to a halt in front of Grim, he wrapped an arm under the older man's arms before taking off, trusting in the environmental charms to protect them both.

Lara saw Harry almost _materialize_ in front of Grim, and then take off, Grim in hand, as he radio crackled out, "Lara, cover!"

Throwing herself behind a steel pillar some ten feet thick, she gasped as light and sound were drowned out. A massive _pressure_ slammed her into the deck plating as he ears and eyes failed her. A light too bright to be registered as anything but darkness, a sound so loud that she was deafened.

And then it all faded. Gasping at the sudden release of pressure, she slowly peered around the pillar she'd taken cover behind.

And stared at the deck that Grim had been on. It glowed a bright orange color, and Lara could feel the heat radiating from it, even though she was some twenty-five meters from it. Tiny clumps of... _something_ rested on the plates. Lara, remembering the positions of her assailants, could only imagine that they were flash-immolated cultists.

"Lara, you okay?" Harry's voice came, crackling out of her radio.

"Yeah, I'm good. What the hell did you do, Harry?!"

"Hang on. Dammit, hold still, Grim! Let me set you down. There's a beach Southwest of here. It has a battleship aground. I want everyone meeting up there.

"Sorry about that, Lara. Grim was whinging about his rescue." Barely, in the background, Lara could hear Grim complaining about 'Rough handling' and 'No respect'. "I'm on my way back up."

Ten minutes later, Harry popped up over the edge of the platform, setting down easily on his broom. Slinging it over his shoulder, he turned to stare.

"Oh, wow. Didn't expect _all that_ ," he admitted, viewing the now dark-red hot tower top.

"What did you do?" Lara repeated herself.

Harry flushed a little, smirking oddly. "It was a potion," he admitted. "I just remembered the various mistakes that Neville and Seamus cooked up in potions, and what all Snape told us not to do. I took about ten minutes to mix it all up, popped it all under a stasis charm, and dropped it on their heads. This... I was expecting a thinning of the herd, not _this_. Damn."

"At least it worked," Lara sighed out. "Now how do I get across?"

"I can get two people across on my broom. It'll be a bit slow, bit we can make it work."

"Alright," Lara sighed out, beginning to properly secure her gear. "How do we do this?"

A few minutes later, Harry was almost _painfully_ aware of a pair of breasts pressed into his upper back. Lara was seated behind him, hands around his waist keeping her steady as he slowly moved them past the still hot platform to the beginning of the first bridge. He brought the broom down, letting Lara off even as he gritted his teeth against his body's hormonal rush.

"Alright. Without the explosive potion this time, I think we should work this like the last plan," Lara recommended, stretching her legs against the unusual stiffness being astride a broom caused. "I'll cross, you thin the herd with invisible magic."

"Sounds good," Harry replied, popping his neck while feeling the sizzle of magic under his skin.

"I see you kids made it," Lara's radio crackled out with Roth's voice.

"We did," Lara replied. "Harry got Grim to safety. We plan to enter the palace to rescue Sam and the others."

"Good to hear, kids," Roth admitted. "I managed to find an old German rifle. I can help cover you two from here. Looking out, they spotted the flicker of scope glass across the way, far out of range of the cultist's submachine guns.

"Sounds good, but there's a hitch," Lara admitted. "The plan was for Harry to cover me in flight while invisible. I don't want you shooting him on accident because you can't see him."

"That's a good point, lass," Roth allowed. "How about Harry cover you from a raised position, say about fifteen meters above the bridge? That way he's out of my line of fire while still able to cover you."

Harry nodded at that, and Lara said, "That works."

Harry's radio crackled to life, static heavy as a voice came through with, "Rescue chopper N888RC responding to SOS. Inbound from freighter Trinity."

"This is Conrad Roth of the Endurance. Do you copy?" There was a pause, and a distinct lack of response before, "Lara… did you hear that… A rescue helicopter is inbound!

"That’s great news, Roth. Set up a signal. I’m going in for Sam and the others."

"But Lara, maybe I should-"

"This isn’t like the pilot, Roth," Lara spoke firmly into her radio. "I got Sam and the others into this mess. I’m getting them out."

Lara skillfully ascended the short tower as Harry recast the disillusionment charm (and mentally noting that he was _really_ getting a workout with it). As Lara stepped onto the bridge, Harry glided along ahead, noting the complete lack of guards on the route. Frowning, he glided the broom over near the second bridge, counting out twenty-three guys with submachine guns and machetes.

Harry turned down the volume on his radio before readying his wand. Floating up to the required elevation, He spotted Lara exit the second tower to begin crossing along the underside of the bridge.

Atop the bridge, the guards were peering out.  
"What the hell is going on down there… do you think they got the outsider?"

"Don’t worry. If they didn’t, then she’ll come to us."

"Father Mathias will send us to the Oni if we don’t find her."

"Only if we fail. And we won’t. The Sun Queen is with us."

"What the-" the man exclaimed as he pointed his gun down into a hole towards Lara.

A shot rang out, the bullet clearing through the side of the man's head. Other cultists began shouting.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hey, what was that?! Who’s shooting?"

"Sniper! Take cover!"

Harry tuned them out, the sizzle under his skin growing as he softly began casting. Bludgeoners, cutters, piercers, and banishers sang from his wand. As the cultists were non-magical, they couldn't actually _see_ the magical energies being unleashed, merely feel their effects.

Between Harry's spellfire and Roth's sniping, the bridge had been cleared within three minutes.

"There she is! Below the bridge, fire, fire!"

Massed gunfire rang out from the edge of the palace, where the bridge met land, and several boards shattered, sending Lara rolling back down toward the underside of the bridge. Harry watched her tuck, roll, and then leap onto the roof of a building set into the cliffside below the palace. She ran fast as bullets and arrows chased her. Harry did what he could to shield her, but she was running faster than he dared to fly while invisible.

Finally, she launched herself at a section of cliff face, managing to lodge her climbing axe into the surface before ascending at a dizzying pace.

Turning up his radio, he heard, "Roth, I’m heading in."

"Are you sure about this, Lara?"

"I’ll get them. I’ll come back. I promise."

"Where do you want me?" Harry asked on his own radio.

"Outside," Lara responded. "Two people are more easily spotted than one. See of you can get a feel for the palace from above, and when I pop back up, we'll get together."

"Understood." Switching frequencies, he said, "Roth, what about you?"

"I'm heading off to make the signal for the rescue team," Roth's answer came over the radio. "I recommend that you do what Lara said, and be ready for my call to rendezvous."

Harry drifted away from the mesa, considering his options. Sighing, he pulled his broom up, ascending to get a good view of the palace ruins.

His gaze was drawn to a shiny flicker. Turning his head, he saw the most incongruous sight. A pale woman with somewhat bushy black hair sat on a log atop a small mesa. A lacy parasol shielded her from the slowly setting sun as she seemed to look at him directly before waving for him to come closer.

As Harry approached, he made out more details. Black jeans and boots, and a black, form-fitting tank-top. A single piece of jewelry (which was what caught his eye), and some odd makeup around her eyes. She was quite attractive, if very pale.

"Hello, Harry Potter," the woman said lightly. "I've been waiting for a moment to speak with you."

The woman seemed neither armed nor hostile, so Harry landed and cut his invisibility. "Hello, ma'am. May I help you?"

The woman smiled, giggling lightly. "I certainly hope so. I want to hire you for a task."

Harry blinked at that, then looked around. "I don't understand. You're here, in an impossible spot, in an area surrounded by cultists."

"That's because this was where I appeared," she answered, twirling the parasol a little. "I guessed that this spot in this moment would be the best time to talk with you."

Harry sighed at that. "Fair enough, I guess. So, a task?"

"In exchange for information you'll need later," she admitted.

"And the task is...?"

"Ah. On this island, souls aren't passing properly. There are... I suppose you would call them 'soul sinks' that keep the dead from moving on. The trapped souls are then used as fuel for the storms at the direction of Himiko's mind."

"That... would explain a lot," Harry admitted, his mind returning to his discussion with Roth. "Where are these 'soul sinks'?"

"North of here, there is a temple. It's the tallest structure on the island. Atop all of that is the ritual chamber that Himiko used to cheat mortality. Beneath the stones of the ritual chamber are the soul sinks. Destroy them, and you'll be able to leave the island. Don't, and I earnestly doubt you will leave this place alive."

"No pressure, got it," Harry murmured. "So I'd have to do something about them regardless. And the pay?"

"Information in the numbers of three and seven, and their importance to you."

"Vague, yet specific," Harry admitted. "And what do _you_ get out of this?"

"Freedom for the dead," the woman admitted. "Mortality is a delicate balance, with far too many trying to cheat their way out. The one who gave you your scar used a particular method, while Himiko used a different one."

Harry sighed, then nodded. "Alright, you got a deal. Anything I need to know about this that you can share?"

Resting her chin on her hand, she considered this for a moment. "No really," she admitted. "In all honesty, destroying the soul traps will deal with most of the issues on the island. As for Himiko herself, she _can_ be destroyed. She isn't like your Tom Riddle, who walked through Fiendfyre. Riddle would take considerably more effort to return to the cycle than Himiko."

"I see. Well then, I guess I'll see you when it's done."

"Or when you fail," she stated. "Either way, I will see you again."

Harry turned, looking down the edge of the small mesa. "So how will you get down?"

"I have my ways." Harry could hear the humor in her voice before he recoiled back from the edge, the sound of a mighty beat of wings ringing through his ears.

Turning, he blinked to see that the woman was no longer there. Shaking his head, he remounted the broom, reapplied the charms, and began flying back towards the palace, camera in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a short one, but this felt like a good spot to wrap up the chapter. And the first of my Crossover Cameos! This will be the only one in this arc. The next arc will have quite a few more. I won't list them in the tags, as almost all of them will be small one-shot appearances.
> 
> Honestly, the explosive potion was intended to be a part of the story since it's envisioning. The thought of Harry using Neville and Seamus' mistakes was too good to pass on.
> 
> Also, I apologize for the delay. Life stuff came up.
> 
> Constructive comments and criticisms are always welcome!


	7. A Most Problematic Revelation

'That was an interesting encounter,' Salim commented inside of Harry's head.

This was while Harry was invisibly flying over the palace. From above, it seemed less ruined than he had thought. Many walls had large, crudely patched holes in them, but the base structures looked pretty solid.

"How are you finding it interesting?" Harry murmured while snapping photos.

'I may be incorrect, but it seems that a psychopomp has evinced an interest in you.'

"What's a psychopomp?"

'A psychopomp is a guiding force for the deceased,' Salim explained in a lecturing tone. 'Charon, of the Greco-Roman tradition, or the Valkyrie of the Nordic. They lead the souls of the dead to where they need to go.'

"Huh," Harry softly mused aloud. "Explains her interest in the soul sinks, then. I do wonder what my pay will be."

A soft chuckling entered Harry's mind as Salim commented, 'That _is_ an excellent question. Truly, I find myself wondering. At any rate, Miss Croft is on the rescue, while Roth is setting up the signal for the flying machine.'

"Yeah, I have to wonder about that. If a storm can appear from nowhere to drop a cargo plane, what chance does a helicopter have? It's like the cultists said; sudden storms crushing boats, and Lara witnessed what happened to the plane. And you said that it was some kind of soul magics that put me on the ground when that all happened."

'Hmm. A fascinating set of questions, young master. A great many things on this island don't add up, as I believe the modern phrase goes. However, we may wish to consider proceeding to the Northern temple. If the soul magics stem from there, it would behoove us to deal with that as swiftly as possible.'

"That's a solid point," Harry admitted, looking around the valley from above the palace. He then turned his broom and shot off directly south, passing over the shantytown. "But first, some food. I haven't had a chance to eat anything since this morning, and I threw _that_ up."

'An excellent idea, especially with the potion adjusting your health.'

"You know," Harry said, following the gondola cables, "I forgot about that. Shit, was that _yesterday_ I took the potion?"

'It was. Yesterday morning, in fact. Sadly, we have yet to have time to properly enter the bag since our arrival. Otherwise we could be better equipped.'

"We've been doing well enough," Harry commented.

'True, but we could be doing _better_ ,' Salim maintained. "I will admit that your use of a dangerous potion was most innovative.'

"I just did what Snape told us not to do," Harry idly replied as he brought the Firebolt down on the edge of a bit of land he'd flown over early that morning.

Harry picked it out because apart from a couple of buildings and a few tree stands, it had been fairly empty of cultists. Settling onto a tree stand (and mentally noting that there were a _lot_ of zip lines around in a forest), he set down his pack to pull out a few cans. A can opener and a warming charm meant that he now had a hot meal, and he devoured the various foods without tasting them, preferring to keep a watch over the surroundings.

Bizarrely, there was birdsong, a couple of deer, a few rabbits. Nothing else. It was as if the cultists had abandoned the area. Scouting with his omnioculars, he saw a campfire that still slightly smoldered, a freshly dressed deer hanging out front of one of the two buildings, and what seemed to be a couple of caves a bit further to the west.

Sighing heavily, Harry leaned against the tree trunk, considering the last twenty-four hours. And then he stopped.

"Salim," he slowly began, "you said that the soul magics were involved in the storm, yeah?"

'I did. What of it?'

"And the psychopomp said that to leave the island, I'd need to destroy the soul traps."

'Yes. Where are you going with this?'

"If... If the soul magics control the storms, and the soul sinks burn off souls as fuel, then doesn't that mean that if we disable all that, the storms end?"

'I do believe that was the entire point of the discussion,' Salim replied, a touch of impatience coloring his voice.

"But that _storm system_ is hundreds of miles wide!" Harry exclaimed. "If the overall storm system is a couple of thousand years old, what will that do to the global weather structure if it's so been there all this time?"

Salim was silent for a full minute before replying, 'That is a question with a lot of connotation. Something like that would have unforseen consequences.'

"Gets worse," Harry stated, now pacing back and forth atop the stand. "A storm system disappears overnight. Suddenly, the muggles can _see_ the island! Yamatai will be _swarmed_ by historians! And that leads to the Statute of Secrecy being blown wide open!"

Harry felt an odd tingling sensation deep within his brain, and realized that that was Salim rifling through his memories. 'You would most likely be correct,' the voice admitted. 'Ideas?'

"We... We'll have to do what we did at Hogwarts," Harry began, his thoughts slowly firming up. "We need to find the control system, take it over, keep the status quo for now. Figure out how to control the storms and keep them maintained without having to use the soul traps."

'Not an insubstantial list,' Salim commented thoughtfully. 'In all truth, our line knew little about soul magics apart from the basics. Our family line was more into blood sorceries and mind magics than anything else. However... If we... Hm. If we bind the storms to your magics, we may be able to wrest control from the current guidance. But if this is an asiatic control system, I would have no knowledge of how to achieve this.'

"I get you. If it's ancient Japanese, it's outside of your knowledge. If it's Asian in general we might have a chance, but Japanese is an unknown."

'Tricky indeed, young master.'

"I think..." Harry paused, stopping his pacing. "We need to find the current control center. If we find that, we can figure out something from there."

"Not a poor plan, given our lack of information,' Salim admitted. 'And I do believe that the psychopomp has given us the information we require.'

"Northern temple, yeah. Damn."

'I do have a concern, young master.'

"Hm?"

'The potions that you are on are all accelerating your body's processes, keeping exhaustion at bay and keeping your mind clear. When do they wear off?'

"I... Shit, I don't know," Harry ruefully admitted. "Pepperup is pretty short-term. Girding potion is about twelve hours. Vitamix is... I'll have to say at least a day, since it's banned for Quidditch, and professional games can go for a while."

'Tonight, then. You'll have to find a safe place tonight before you simply collapse from the accumulated exhaustion.'

"Yeah, Lara and me both," Harry said before dropping onto the platform, his brain in agony.

'Interesting,' Harry managed to hear Salim comment through the haze of pain. 'Soul magics have activated, but with a more directed purpose than before.'

"Hmwha?" Harry eloquently slurred out.

'The storms were an ugly slash across the magical skein of this land,' Salim began lecturing. 'Crude, and only barely directed, they were far more powerful than this use. Power over skill, one might say. This use, however, was small, pinpoint use. Were I to guess, I would say that the power was applied in an area that was already preset for it's use.'

"Lightning versus circuit board," Harry groaned out, slowly sitting up. "Lightning is barely restrained electricity, but a circuit board is tightly controlled electricity."

'An excellent analogy, young master.'

"How the fuck can I feel it though?" Harry demanded, sipping water from his canteen.

'This I am uncertain of. Insufficient data, and all. We'll simply have to, ah, play it by ear?'

"Yeah, we can do that," Harry mumbled, once more astride his Firebolt.

Kicking off, he headed North again. Harry did mention, "I wonder who built this gondola system. It's huge."

'Another excellent question. Had we the spare time, I would urge exploration. Sadly, we are not free to do so.'

Harry internally agreed, as the towers were easily more than fifty meters tall with four meter wide pulleys pushing half-meter thick cables to which were attached gondola carts. The whole thing seemed to be driven by the windmill in the shantytown, and Harry wondered not merely who built it, but also how extensively the system ran.

"Whole place is crazy," Harry muttered, pushing forward on the speed in the early night sky.

Harry did have to admit that, being from a major metropolitan area, the view of the area and stars at night was _incredible_. No light pollution to milk over the limited cloud cover, no noise of cars, no stench of burning petrol. This high up, even the stench of the open cesspit didn't reach, and Harry could make out the outlines of the buildings picked out by firelight.

Suddenly frowning, Harry felt a drop of rain hit the back of his hand as another headache began to edge into the sides of his awareness. Muttering a quiet spellword as he tapped the arm of his glasses with his wand, he waited as the world adjusted, going greyscale to his sight as the ancient Night Vision spell took ahold.

Sure enough, clouds were gathering fast, unseen in the night sky. Far out to sea, Harry could see the edges of clouds begin to crowd, lighting slowly dancing along the borders of where the clouds brushed against each other.

"Roth!" Harry called into his radio. "We have a massive storm coming in."

"Blast," came the reply. "The rescue chopper is inbound. I was hoping the island wouldn't see it until it was too late. We're just going to have to power through it."

"I'm at a thousand feet up, Roth. Seeing lightning out to sea. This isn't going to be a fun ride."

"Well, lad, I guess we'll figure that out when we get to it. Where's Grim?"

"With a little luck, Grim made it to the beach on the South end. The one with the wrecked battleship. I'm hoping we can get everyone there."

"Stands to reason," Roth agreed. "We'll make that the landing spot for the chopper once it picks us up from the palace area. The rendezvous point is across the bridge from the palace."

"With the way those clouds are rolling in, I doubt we'll make it there intact," Harry stated, feeling the Firebolt shift in the slowly increasing winds as he began making his way down.

Fifteen minutes later, the storm was beginning to hammer down _hard_. Rain mixed with flecks of hail were pelting the environmental charms of the Firebolt, and Harry was beginning to see flames erupting from within the palace. Explosions were tearing out chunks of walls, and fresh cultists corpses were being flung out into the valley below.

"Lara!" Harry called out on his radio. "Where are you?"

"I got the others out," the slightly distorted response crackled out, "and I'm going after Sam now. I found Whitman, too; he's keeping watch."

"Got it. Rescue chopper's on it's way, but there's another storm brewing. Is all the fire your fault?"

"Kind of? There's active lava below the palace. I kind of had to use explosions to get out."

"Understood. Keep me posted."

Harry returned to invisibility, slowly floating down, letting the various buildings block the ever increasing wind from blowing him around. Squinting, he spotted the massive form of Jonah kick out a bad patch job on a wall before he, Reyes, and Alex clambered out.

Reaching into the Access Room, Harry pulled out a blanketed roll. Whistling shrilly, he dropped the roll, with it landing at Reyes' feet with a clanking thud. Reyes unrolled it, then whistled aloud in appreciation.

Four submachine guns, three shotguns, and a couple of pistol glistened in the firelight. Bundles of loaded magazines were tied to each firearm. All gleaned from one use of the summoning charm back at the windmill.

"It's Harry," he called out from above them. "Roth has a chopper coming in, but the storm will make things tough. Arm up; all else fails, head for the beach with the battleship!"

"I got it!" Reyes called out, shooting a thumbs-up in his general direction.

Harry sped around, using the buildings to his advantage. Above him, the palace seemed to catch fire on one side even as he heard a voice screaming for people to get away from her.

Peering around a building, he saw Sam, pistol in hand, warning cultists off. Granted, none of the cultists had weapons in hand, and they looked like they were trying to get her to give herself up. Harry did, however, recognize the expression of Sam's face. Fear. Raw, naked fear.

Shaking his hand loose, he guided the Firebolt into position. Taking aim, he drew the sword even as he began accelerating.

Eyes hard, mind focused exclusively on the task, he invisibly swept the Firebolt in a trajectory behind the three men, swinging the sword in a gently timed side arc. Almost instantly, three torsos silently exploded away from Sam before Harry wheeled around, cutting out the disillusionment charm. 

"Sam? You okay?"

Sam, to her credit, wasn't on the ground in shock or horror. She instead stood there in disbelief. "H-Harry? What the fuck just happened?" she demanded, lowering the pistol.

Harry sighed as he sheathed the sword across his back. "Short answer. Magic is real, I'm a wizard, and I used a magic sword on them while I was on my flying broom," he responded, patting the broomstick that he was still astride.

"Uh, okay," Sam replied, blinking at that.

"I need to get you to the others," Harry continued. "Are you okay enough to run?"

"Maybe?" she said doubtfully.

Harry sighed, shrinking and pocketing his broom. Fishing out his gun, he checked the magazine before saying, "Then we'll walk there. If you see cultists, shoot them. Don't stop to ask anything, don't bother hearing them out."

"Wha?! But they're still people!"

"Kidnappers, murderers, and generally unpleasant people," Harry added to her own statement. "Basically, us versus them. What did they want you for?"

"A-a fire ritual," Sam admitted. "Lara tried to get them to stop, but they overpowered her. Thank God she's okay."

"And what did the ritual involve?" Harry asked, now guiding her toward where he'd last seen Jonah's group.

"They... They tried to burn me at the stake. Then a massive wind blew it all out. Mathias said that I had passed the test, that I was the one they were looking for."

"About two hours ago?" Sam nodded at that, even as Harry peered around a corner. "Soul magics went off about then. Really painful stuff for me," Harry admitted before taking aim, spraying a few cultists with short bursts of bullets. "And the storms are horrible. I have a building headache even now."

"Is this a bad time-"

"Oh yeah," Harry interrupted. "Later we can talk about it. Right now we're staying alive, getting to safety."

"Right. Right, got it."

Harry was actually somewhat thankful for the storm, as the rising winds hid the sounds of their footsteps well enough for Harry to get the drop on several groups of cultists. If they looked armed and hunting, he put them down. If they weren't doing anything offensive, he banished them (somewhat gently) into walls and kept them there with sticking charms. Occasionally he would animate the flames from a drum fire to serve as a distraction, other times he would force an ammunition can to explode from magically heating up the metal, thus cooking off the rounds.

One time he simply levitated a man straight up into the air, letting the magic carry him away.

Almost an hour later, he finally spotted the trio. Using his sword, he cut through the fence separating them, letting Sam cry out to them as she ran forward.

"Harry, you okay?" Alex asked, somehow having retained his own backpack.

"Not at all," Harry gritted out, the pain in his head whipping up at the same pace as the storm. "The storm is hitting harder. Makes my head hurt. Where you guys heading?"

"The spot across the bridge that you told us about," Alex replied, pointing in a direction.

"That's right," Harry mumbled. "Sorry, hard to think. I gotta... Shit."

"Hey, you okay, man?" Alex asked, resting a hand on Harry's shoulder.

Alex stared as Harry seemed to straighten up, his green eyes a centerpoint as the whites of his eyes turned red. "Do not get on the helicopter," Harry stated in an entirely different, somewhat higher pitched accent. "The storm will pluck it from the sky, casting it down. Make your way to the beach with the battleship. We will do what we can to get to the rest of our party."

With that, the group stared as 'Harry' pulled something out of his pocket, expanded it into a broom, and took off in flight.

"What the fuck was that?" Reyes asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! This one got a little chunky in the writing. I had wanted more for this chapter, but I'll have to save it for the next one.
> 
> And yes, I had planned on addressing the significance of the Statute of Secrecy in this arc from the beginning.
> 
> Edit: Also, I want to thank jiffy185 for the reminder of the term Psychopomp. I would never have remembered that without the reminder.
> 
> Constructive comments and criticisms are always welcome!


	8. Sacrifice or Loss

Snarling, the young man dashed across the sky back towards the slowly exploding palace. He hated the broom, hated the local magics, hated the reliance on a _wand_ of all things, and especially hated being so far from his Center of Power.

About the only thing he _did_ like was how fast his new reaction time was. No wielder before had been this fast, and it was somewhat comforting to see all of the speed and dexterity training in his memories. That, and the magical flow. The flow rate was _immense_ for one so young; his body could channel magic like a magical three times his age.

'At least my mind is still my own', Salim mentally groused, somewhat thankful that Harry had absolutely no desire for the traditional full integration that most of the line's wielder's had demanded as their right. Never mind that, in Salim's opinion, Harry had more of a right to the power than most of the line had.

Peering around, he raised the omnioculars to scan the palace. Over there, dodging explosions and climbing up fast, was the girl that the boy had mentally listed as Older Sister. A little further away was the flying machine; he could just barely make out Roth gesturing for Lara to jump before an explosion forced her to reroute.

Swearing in Arabic ('Have to teach the boy that later'), he began pushing the broom, relying mostly on muscle memory to guide the device.

And then he swerved, barely dodging the bolt of lightning that came down out of the sky.

The wand slid out of the wrist holster, the eyes closing for a moment before a long chant in a milennia-dead language emerged from his throat even as the wand tapped his glasses.

Opening his eyes, he began scanning the new information scrolling down the left lens of the eyewear. An ancient spell, then of extremely limited utility due to it's need for a focus of absolutely clear glass or crystal to display the data, in the modern era the only complication was the length of the chant (nearly a minute) for the spell.

Refocusing the spell slightly, Salim began moving faster, dodging lighting bolts as if the moon god Amm was aiming for him. As he moved in a long, but very fast circle, he began casting a somewhat more modern spell that Harry had found some time back in some advanced Defense books, the last known user being Gellert Grindelwald.

Salim then gritted his teeth. He knew he should have expected this when he cast the Tempest spell. The fight for control was not going to be pleasant, and a voice in a foreign language keened (what he thought were) insults at the attempt to wrest a small portion of control of the storm raging above him.

In all honesty, all Salim had tried to do was redirect the lightning. But now, fully committed to the course, he used the boy's magics to _move_ the lightning, just a little bit, to try to draw it away from the wingless abomination that was in the process of rescuing Lara.

Pushing the broom harder, he _pulled_ the brunt of the storm after him, and away from the helicopter. Rain and wind still proceeded in that direction, but the lightning was chasing him as he let the body make the broom dance at more than a hundred miles per hour.

For a moment, he wondered if the broom could actually outrace the storm if they left the island.

Then the broom kicked, and Salim heard the goblin-forged iron being hit by something even as he felt a couple of spots of pain in the legs. Looking down, he saw that cultists were firing their weapons at him, easily picking him out among the lightning.

Swiveling, allowing the body to push the broom into a tight roll as he accelerated, dragging the lighting with him, letting the electricity boil away the flesh of the cultists who'd dared assault him.

Peeling away from the now deceased people, he shot the broom South, back along the path that they had taken for their meal. The massive towers stood out against the lightning, and Salim threaded the needle between the towers, cutting off the tempest spell as he let the towers take the electricity as lighting rods.

The broom was somehow losing speed, and he guided it to the forest below as the raging storm began to slide back in intensity to a standard rain storm. He did manage to land, only to hit the forest floor when his legs gave out.

Groaning, Salim looked over the legs. Fortunately, the ancient spell on the eyeglasses still held, and he was able to spot blood oozing through the wet pants legs. Swearing softly, he did have to stop for a moment to consider something.

Harry was mentally unconscious due to the extreme pain of the soul magics, so Salim was forced to take over. This meant that Harry's knowledge of medicine wasn't available. Nor was the mental inventory that Harry kept of the contents of the Access Room in his bag. Also, the entire world was tinged red; the strain of the soul magics had ruptured several blood vessels in Harry's eyes. A minor injury, but still inconvenient.

'At least the soul magics have eased,' Salim thought to himself. 'Perhaps the boy will wake soon.' He spent a little time fishing out a first aid kit before peeling up the trouser legs ('What is wrong with a thawb?') so that he could wrap the bullet wounds in gauze after casting the vanishing charm on the bullets, followed by a few (very) basic healing charms to force the muscle to knit back together.

Suddenly, his awareness snapped backwards as Harry came to wakefulness. Looking around frantically, Harry took in his surroundings before sighing. "What the hell happened?"

'Many apologies, young master,' Salim soothed out, 'but the soul magics driving the storm forced you to pass out. I had to take over the body to work to get us to safety.'

"Didn't know you could do that," Harry mumbled, looking over his gauze wrapped legs.

'Neither did I until my hand was forced', Salim admitted. 'But our group fled across the bridge, and the helicopter was shielded from lightning. It was the best I could do,' he said ruefully.

"At least they got away. That's the important bit. What happened to my legs?"

'As I was drawing the lightning away, cultists shot at us, backlit by the storm. There are a few bullets in your legs, and I fear there may be some damage to your broom.'

Sighing, Harry unwrapped his legs and applied seven drops of dittany, one to each wound. He then inspected the broom.

Groaning at the sight of several runes in the iron frame chipped, he shrunk the Firebolt down and tossed it into his bag. "Broom's unsafe," Harry admitted. "Some runes are damaged, so I'll have to go on foot from here. And why is everything red?"

"Some blood vessels in your eyes ruptured due to the storm's strain. If you check the magical readout on your eyewear, you will see that the damage is minor, and largely harmless."

"Right. I've been there," Harry muttered, remembering an occasion from when he was eight. "It'll pass in a couple of hours. Fuck, I need to learn more medical charms."

'Given our predicament, I would have to agree, young master,' Salim chuckled out.

Slowly standing, Harry shouldered his pack before setting his wand on the palm of his hand, incanting, " ** _Point Me Lara_**." The wand spun, pointing a bit more South.

Trudging forward, Harry was distracted by the magical information feed in his left eye. He didn't even sense the rifle butt swinging out, catching him in the gut. Doubling over, Harry tried to breathlessly roll away, but ended up back first against a tree.

A hand grabbed his shirt collar, roughly pulling him up only to slam him into a tree. Hot, foul breath invaded his senses.

And then the man let him go. Harry slowly regained his breath, looking up at the cultist that had captured him.

"So," the man began in a foreign accent, "The boy who killed a lot of my brothers. Where is the girl?" he demanded harshly.

"Not sure," Harry wheezed out. "Didn't see where the chopper went."

"I see," the man stated, before stepping up to Harry, a smirk on his lips as the back of his hand caressed Harry's cheek. "Ваши волосы достаточно длинные, чтобы притворяться," he softly said.

Harry had _no_ idea what the man said, but didn't feel like it was a positive thing. Lashing out with a knee, he managed to catch the man in the leg before lunging to the side.

The man merely grabbed him, and then backhanded Harry to the ground. Harry tasted blood as he tried to roll with it, but only managed to land on his back.

The man approached, leering as he readied a pistol. Harry slowly got up, and then spat in the man's face, his own expression full of defiance.

The man laughed, saying, "I like breaking the spirited..." He voice cut off as his expression grew horrified. He began clawing at his face, even as Harry watching the man's right eye _melt_. Harry backed away fast, ending up with his back to a tree as the man thrashed on the ground, clutching at his head before he lay still.

'Young master, to quote Miss Reyes, what the _fuck_ was that?'

"I don't..." Harry paused, remembering something from what seemed a long time ago.

Healer Morgan's words swam up out of memory. _'I do not recommend donating blood to anyone whose life you wish preserve. Your blood is now extraordinarily toxic, and the infusion of phoenix tears naturalized the toxin to your biology_.'

"My blood has basilisk venom in it," Harry slowly said, still eyeballing the ruined face. "When I spat at him..."

'The venom went into a slightly delayed effect,' Salim continued for Harry. 'Fortunately for us, the venom hit his eye, and went directly into his brain. This is something you'll have to be very careful with.'

"No shit. I wonder what it was he said to me."

'I do not know. Some of the cultists have spoken it, but I have no knowledge of it, nor anything that seems to be of a related tongue.'

Harry got his breathing under control, and then headed back out towards Lara's position. Almost an hour later, with Salim filling him in fully on what had happened while he was mentally away, he saw a blazing fire with Lara, Sam, Reyes, and Jonah standing before it.

"What did I miss?" Harry asked, walking up briskly.

"Roth is dead," Reyes spat out, eyes locked on what Harry now identified as a pyre.

"He died saving my life," Lara continued. "The crash stopped my heart, and after he gave me CPR, he fought some cultists that tried to kill us."

Harry sighed, unslinging his pack as he sat down at the base of a nearby tree. "Fuck. After all that work, too."

"What work?" Alex asked curiously.

"Tried drawing the lightning away from the helicopter," Harry replied, his voice full of exhaustion. "Thank God for the Firebolt. Managed to outfly the lightning, used a storm spell to draw it off, make it follow. Got downed by some cultists when they clipped my broom," Harry stated, not outright admitting to not being in control at the time.

Lara nodded at this, while the other three stared at his matter-of-fact revelations. "That's a crazy story, Harry," Reyes stated.

"It's like I told Sam. I'm a wizard, magic is real, I have a magic wand, a magic sword, and a flying broom. Back home I have an owl that delivers mail and an elf that is managing my properties. And no, I'm not crazy."

"He isn't," Lara interrupted. "Potions, spells, magical creatures, I've seen it. Harry hired me to work on a project before we left. Imagine a hundred foot long snake; that's what was in there. Books, scrolls, and tablets, all at least a thousand years old. All buried under a magical school in Scotland."

"Harry," Jonah began, "I don't doubt that you get this, but we don't-"

" ** _Lumos_** ," Harry incanted, the tip of his wand lighting up brightly. " ** _Point Me Lara_** ," he further stated. Instantly, a ray of light leapt out, picking Lara against the gloom. The conjoined spells faded as Harry exhaustedly stated, "As I said. It's real. The storms are magic, too. Some sort of soul magics. Until we deal with them, I'm pretty sure we're stuck here."

"And how do we do that, Mr. Wizard?" Reyes demanded, arms crossed.

"Not entirely sure," Harry grunted out, shifting his butt away from a root. "But there's a temple on the North end of the island. That's where we'll need to be."

Silence reigned as the funeral pyre merrily burned. Then Reyes spoke up. "That old PT boat on the beach. I should be able to fix it up."

"Shouldn't be too hard," Harry stated, now leaning against his pack. "Whole place seems to have preservation magics all over it. Pretty sure that's what's keeping everything from rotting away after a thousand years without maintenance."

"And what then?" Alex asked. "Do we try to leave, even with the storms?"

"No. We can't," Lara stated fiercely. "Harry's right. The storms come up out of nowhere. The storm that hit the helicopter? Those were _hurricane_ force winds. No boat is going to get us out of here until we deal with that."

"But fixing up the PT boat isn't a bad idea," Jonah broke in. "Besides, there are rivers and inlets all over the island. It shouldn't be hard to find a way to get closer to where we need to be."

"Fine," Reyes snarled out. "We need to get to the beach. Harry was right about meeting there. Hopefully Grim will be there too."

"I can’t leave him yet…," Lara said, her voice full of grief. "I need time."

Sam smiled at her, placing a hand on Lara's shoulder. "You know where we’ll be. Come down when you’re ready; we won’t go anywhere without you."

Lara held Sam back for a moment, handing her one of Roth's pistols. "Keep this close."

The trio left, with Lara and Harry gazing at the fire.

"What do we do, Harry?"

"I have an idea, but you might think it's disrespectful."

"Oh?" she asked, turning her head to look at Harry fully.

"Salim says he can teach me an acceleration spell to allow us to sleep less to get a full rest. And the potions I fed us are going to be wearing off soon."

"Ugh, crap," Lara grumbled. "And Roth would say to sleep while we can. How do we do this safely?"

Harry slowly got to his feet, hanging his bag up on a branch.

Three hours later, the pair emerged from the bag. They hadn't gotten far, just to the living room where they collapsed on the couches. Harry cast a spell in Arabic that took almost thirty seconds to incant, and when they awoke they felt fully refreshed. Harry did insist that they eat, and they scarfed down a rather substantial amount of calories.

Night had fully fallen as the pair picked their way down the slope. Harry blinked, recognizing the forest that he'd eaten at earlier, the one that Salim had been aiming for.

Unlike last time, cultists with flashlights were patrolling the forest, and Harry could hear a distant baying of wolves.

"Find anything?" came a voice from the darkness.

"No, it’s too damned dark," a second man replied, slowly panning a flashlight. They could be anywhere."

"You sure they’re here? Maybe I should just climb a tree and wait this out." More, slightly closer baying could be heard. "Great. Fucking wolves."

Something rustled in the brush, and a cultist turned, shouting. "Hey! If you’re hiding, come out! Show yourselves! Come out, come out!"

"Anything?" the other one asked hopefully.

"No. Nothing. Gotta keep lookin'."

Harry and Lara crept out, moving slowly around the paths of the cultists. The terrain seemed to be contained to a relatively small area sided in short cliffs. The pair spotted a climbable cliff face and began ascending. From there, Harry led Lara across a couple of platforms high up in the foliage.

Looking around, Lara whispered, "I don't think we're getting out of here without a fight, Harry. And there's just too many of them."

"Let me try something," Harry whispered, his wand twitching slightly as he mumbled a spell word. Almost instantly, the voices of a pair of cultists rose from his wand. The cultists were at the mouth of a cave on the east side of the forest.

"Why the fuck are we here, brother?" one asked.

"Father Mathias ordered us here," the other responded in a definitive tone.

"I get that, but this area has _always_ been off limits at night!"

"Oh, that. I heard that a bunch of guys came up missing a few years ago. They were on patrol and then... nothing. No weapons, no bodies, no blood, nothing. It's as if they vanished into thin air."

"Wierd. Whereas I was on a crew that was sent into the monastery. We saw a lot of dead soldiers up there."

"No shit? You see any Oni?"

"Yeah I… Look, I don’t want to talk about it."

"Seriously brother… what did you see?"

"Look, whatever they are… whatever they’re doing up there. It’s some dark shit, alright? I’m not going back, even if Father Mathias orders me. He can shoot me if he wants, but that shit isn't for mortal man."

"I get that you don't want to talk about it, but I have to know what to look for, brother?"

The man sighed, and then said, "Corpses fucking _everywhere_. It should have been a beautiful place. Hell, it probably was, once. But the Oni just piled up corpses into every single corner. There must be _thousands_ of corpses here, just tossed into corners to clear an aisleway. And the damn things are all over the place. At least we dump bodies into the sea. Hygienic, y'know?"

Harry let the spell lapse as Lara whispered, "I've seen that. Places of beauty with dozens of bodies piled into the corners."

"Hm. Explains a bit," Harry admitted. "But... hang on."

Harry squinted, raising the omnioculars and activating the low-light function. Not far away, he spotted a figure slowly gliding across the forest floor.

"Oh, that's just too good not to use," Harry murmured, scanning across to see more of the hooded figures hiding in the deep darkness of the forest.

"What?"

Harry grinned, internally wondering what all this was doing to his mental health. "Lethifolds. Magical creature that devours people whole. No evidence, nothing."

"Okay," Lara whispered slowly. "And how does that help us?"

"It helps us because I know how to fend them off, as well as herd them towards the patrols."

"Can they reach us up here?"

"Not sure," Harry shrugged out. "Won't matter if I herd them before they see us. **_Expecto Patronum_**."

Instantly, the silvery figure burst from Harry's wand, running along the path that Harry was guiding it along. The lethifolds hissed in anger, but began moving faster towards the campfires that the cultists were patrolling around.

"What is that?" Lara asked.

Harry frowned. His patronus was _never_ this indistinct once he'd gotten it to a corporeal form! Then again, he'd only managed to successfully cast it once before, and that was to drive off the dementors threatening him and Sirius.

"Patronus charm," Harry muttered. "Used to be a stag; I don't know why it's so blobby now," he admitted, carefully observing the now indistinct form. No antlers, it now resembled a semi-humanoid running on all fours, but also with a tail. No actual features could be made out, but it was _definitely_ not any kind of deer.

Shrugging it off as something to be figured out later, Harry kept seeping the lethifolds at the cultists. Screams, gunfire, and a few explosions went off before there was silence. And then Harry swept the lethifolds towards the cave, resulting in screams as well as the loud, pained howling of wolves. Once the silence reigned, Harry scanned the terrain, and he and Lara came up negative on people or wolves in the forest.

The pair took a zip line down and, shielded by Harry's patronus, they entered the cave. Some jumping, crawling and ducking a horde of flying bats later, the two exited the end of the cave, blinking in the early dawn light.

Lara's radio crackled to life as the pair descended towards the shanty town. "You there Lara?"

"Alex! I’ve been hoping to you reach you all morning."

"We just got to the beach. Grim made it here, but the boat’s in pretty bad shape. Without the right tools, we might have trouble getting it up and running. We could sure use your help down here," Alex continued, concern lacing his voice.

"See what you can do, we're on our way."

"Is Harry doing okay?"

"As well as can be expected," Lara admitted.

"Well, watch yourselves out there."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the answer to everyone's question! I really wanted to get a proper attempt at Salim's views on some of this, and I think it went pretty well.
> 
> Yes, the Russian guy was kind of awkwardly shoehorned in; I make no excuses for that except that the entire scene was meant to be in this from the very beginning, face melting and all. What he said in Russian translates as "Your hair is long enough to pretend." Yeah, I went there.
> 
> Prongs no longer being the form of Harry's patronus? Oh yeah, and it totally makes sense by canon.
> 
> The moon god Amm was an ancient deity from the Arabian Peninsula. One part of his portfolio was lightning.
> 
> Constructive comments and criticisms are always welcome!


	9. A Rescue Mission! Of Sorts...

Lara and Harry took the zipline to a tower high above the shantytown. Harry looked around, seeing smoke from various areas, but no people. From there, they shimmied across another line to the nearest gondola platform.

Harry huffed for a moment, eyeballing the lifts as they swiveled. Some were empty, others were loaded with cut lumber, plates of metal, and other construction materials.

"You doing okay, Harry?"

"Sort of. I'm just all over the place in my head. I mean, what does it say about me that I'm not terribly fussed after all that's happened, Lara?"

Lara shrugged a little at that. "Probably the same as me, really. I mean, I've been setting people _on fire_ , and I manage to keep moving. I think we'll both need therapy after all this, though."

Harry chuckled at that. "Probably."

"Oh, have you seen yourself yet?" Lara asked, only now being able to take the time to properly observe Harry in the daylight.

Harry shook his head. "I think we've both been kind of busy for that. Give me a second."

Harry waved his wand, transfiguring a plank into a mirror. Leaning it against a strut, he then stared at his reflection.

His chest was _massive_. His arms rippled with muscle, and his legs strained the self-adjusting fabric of his pants. Stripping off his outer shirt, he kept staring at the body builder physique that met his eyes. Pectorals, abdominals, even the cords in his neck stood out in definition.

"The potion," he breathed. "The body rebuild potion did this. Healer Morgan said that diet and exercise would determine the outcome. I've been pushing myself so hard I didn't notice."

"That's amazing," Lara said, brushing his bicep with her fingertips.

"Anyways," Harry continued, shrugging his outer shirt back on, "we need to get moving, no matter how muscular I am. Besides, better muscles mean an easier time. And it's not slowing me down."

The gondola traveled for almost an hour before a suspended, partially disassembled ship came into view. Hanging over a hundred feet off the ground from dozens of cabled hoists, the pair marveled at just _how much_ the cultists had been doing on the island.

"You mentioned that Mathias said he was a teacher by trade, yeah?"

"That's what he said before we knew he was a cult leader," Lara admitted.

"What the fuck was he teaching?" Harry asked, his hand gesturing at the massive gondola system.

"Maybe we need to snatch Mathias up, have him design space stations," Lara quipped as the gondola halted in mid-air.

"Oh, what now?" Harry groaned out, looking around. "Awful quiet out there."

"Too quiet, yeah," Lara returned, firing a rope arrow at a post on another platform before attaching the rope to the gondola. The pair zipped down to the platform and, after a little searching, found the access ladder leading up. Another line took them to the deck of the partially demolished ship.

"Hey! They're here!" came a shout from a distant platform.

"Go, go! Use the lines!"

Harry and Lara ducked for cover, with Lara tossing Harry he rifle, even as she pulled out her bow. Lara began picking men off of ziplines, even as Harry snapped up the rifle, sending tight bursts at cultists who'd managed to make it to the deck.

"Flush her out of there!" one of them shouted. In response, lit bottles were flying through the air. With a word and a gesture, Harry banished the bottles back at the cultists, not only setting some of them aflame, but also detonating a couple of rope-wrapped drums on the deck. As Lara pinned several down with her pistol, Harry began chanting, he eyes glowing with eldritch green flame as the deck plating began to warp and twist. Some portions began to melt and solidify, trapping cultists feet for Lara to pick off. A raised platform's boards snapped up, smacking other cultists off the deck.

"Come on! Is that your best!?" Lara screamed, taunting their enemies.

"Get down there and take her out!" someone shouted, as dynamite was hurled down, only to be banished back at the cultists.

"You kill my brothers… now you die!" came a scream from their left. "Come on, you piece of shit! Hahaha!"

Heavy machine gun fire rang out, and then the entire ship _shifted_ as the cultist shout out one of the cable hoists. The ship slid, and then tipped onto it's side, dumping cultists off the deck to tumble into the white-capped rapids more than a hundred feet below. Harry and Lara had (barely) managed to get a decent grip before the entire ship slammed to a halt, the deck now sideways in the air.

Harry screamed as he used his left hand to hoist himself up to be able to slam his now disjointed right shoulder back into place. Lara, meanwhile, had managed to catch a railing with her feet, saving her own shoulders. Pushing through the pain, Harry gritted his teeth as he climbed, machine gun fire still knocking boards off of the deck to reveal with thick mesh supports underneath.

"Stop… The whole thing is going to fall… please!" screamed out a cultist hanging from a board. "Help… help me! I don’t want to die!"

"Coward!" screamed the man using the machine gun. "Kill them and I’ll stop shooting! Hahaha! Hold still."

Shifting his aim even as Harry and Lara flipped through a deck port hole to the 'interior' of the ship, bullets tore through yet another hoist. Groaning, the ship swung hard through the air, knocking the top off of a gondola stand. Seeing no other choice, the pair jumped, barely managing to snag a zip line.

Ten minutes (and nearly a dozen zip lines in rapid succession) later, the pair managed to safely land at the shallow base of a waterfall. Slogging to shore, Lara shot out the barricade with her shotgun before muttering, "Something tells me the others found an easier way down."

"That would be our luck," Harry muttered in response, casting drying charms on them both.

Looking around, the pair spotted the battleship first, as it easily dominated the western side of the beach. A bit to the south were a pair of old concrete bunkers, and to the east of that were platforms crafted from bit of torn-down ships. The pair did manage to spot a boat by the bunkers, hoisted up above the waters nearly fifty feet below.

"Sam! I’m here," Lara called out as the approached the boat.

"Lara!" exclaimed Sam as the two hugged, only to be joined by Jonah.

"Alex will be sorry he missed out on this," Jonah commented in the middle of the hug.

"Where _is_ Alex?" Harry asked, looking around.

"Heading over to the Endurance to grab some tools for Reyes."

"Jonah… Give the hoist a try," Reyes called out.

"This has got to be our best chance, right?" Sam asked Lara in a nervous tone.

"We’ve got to try," Lara stated reassuringly, even as Harry shrugged.

"I’m glad you two decided to join us," Reyes commented, a stern expression on her face.

Harry shrugged at that. "Had a bit of trouble on the way. Too bad we can't have a party to celebrate," he said, a joking smirk on his face.

"What can I do to help?" Lara asked, hoping that Harry and Reyes wouldn't start bickering. It hadn't happened on the ship, but Lara knew that Harry had been rapidly adjusting to the island, whereas Reyes wasn't adapting very well.

"Help Jonah."

Jonah, Lara, and Harry pulled with all their might, but the engine in the old PT boat wasn't budging.

Reyes frowned, glaring at the engine. "Shit. Harry, can that magic of yours move stuff?"

"Oh, sure," Harry said, looking over the boat. "But with everything, I'm not sure I can trust it. After all, it wouldn't do much good for me to use the levitation charm, only for the engine to fire out into the sky."

Smoothly, Lara interrupted with, "We’ll be able to lift it more smoothly with some kind of block and tackle."

"You’re right. I should be able to fashion one from some pulleys. It's probably best we use the old-fashioned way anyways."

"There might be some on that rigging we can use," Lara commented, pointing out the ancient sailing ship a ways out into the harbor. "I’ll check it out."

Sam grabbed Lara's arm briefly, saying, "Be careful, Lara."

"And I'll go and see if Alex needs a hand," Harry stated, adjusting his equipment.

"That's not a bad idea, Harry," Reyes said, turning away from him. "I’m going to see if I can get this gun working."

"And where the hell is Grim?" Harry asked.

"He found a net," Jonah answered. "He's using it and a cable pulley to try and land us some dinner."

"Awesome! Maybe we can have the celebration after all!" Harry quipped, a proper smile on his face.

"Hey, if it lifts our spirits, I'll do it," Reyes replied, a small smile on her own face.

"Alright, I’ll dismantle this set up and get the engine ready for that black and tackle," Jonah replied, pulling out some scavenged tools.

Brightly, Sam asked, "Anything I can do?"

"Just stay out of the way," Reyes warned.

"You think those things will still fire?" Jonah asked doubtfully.

"They need a bit of cleaning… but yeah, they’ll work," Reyes said. "Maybe Harry was onto something when he was talking about the preservation stuff."

"Hopefully we won’t need to use them. Sam, be careful there…"

Sam indignantly began with, "Hey, Lara’s not the only one who can- Shit!" Gunfire erupted from the machine gun. Fortunately, it was pointed down, so the only thing the rounds struck was the water.

"Watch it, Sam!" Reyes shouted.

"Sorry… I’m sorry!"

"Hey, hey… it’s alright…," Jonah soothed, "just take it easy."

"And don’t touch anything!"

Harry shook his head as he jogged across the beach. Surveying the makeshift stands, he began casting. A mixture of the _Incarcerous_ incantation and sticking charms produced rope and the ability to climb sheer surfaces enabled him to cross at a good pace to a raised building. Taking cover behind a (yet another) heavy crate, Harry dropped two sentries with quiet piercing charms. Ascending the sheer wall, he then took the zip line at the top towards what appeared to be a bunker door. Two more sentries were talking there, but Harry merely yanked them out into the ocean with a quick summoning charm.

Harry did flinch a little when he heard the faint sound of a meaty thud, followed by the loud explosion of a sea mine.

Pushing hard, Harry managed to climb up, over, and under shrubs, cliffs, and tunnels. His focus was on Alex; if the cultists were around, then Alex was in danger. Harry really didn't want to lose anybody else because of all of this.

Finally, he reached the end of the linked cliffs. There, more than a hundred feet away, was a suspended bunker with an anti-ship artillery cannon poking out of it. The splayed barrel indicated that someone had tried to fire it with a plugged barrel, but Harry could make out the aft of the Endurance beyond it.

Another _Incarcerous_ spell generated more rope, and Harry descended to the pipes underneath of the bunker. Climbing steadily, he managed to clear the lip. Marveling at the only slightly tarnished brass of the artillery shells, he crept into a broken chunk of wall, live steam pipes still quite warm above him. As he crept forward, he began to hear voices.

"That should do it. Alright, try now!"

Harry could make out a cluster of men around a machine, the machine itself slowly being hoisted upwards.

"This is a waste of time… how many generators is this? What the hell are they using them for?"

"It doesn’t matter. They put in the orders, we fill them. No questions asked."

"But we already shipped up all those portables last week. Are they powering fucking stadium lights?"

"You should be quiet, brother. Don’t talk like this."

"Keep it steady," a third cultists called out, "we’re bringing it up."  
  
"What do you think’s going on up at the palace?" the first one asked. "All that smoke rising over the mountain…"

"If there was a problem," the second one sighed out, "they’d call down."

"But what about the radio… nothing but static all night."

"Brother. I told you to be silent. Stop this talk! Something’s going on."

"…hold on, it’s jammed," the third one called up, clearly ignoring the bickering behind him.

"Fuck, now what? This job detail is bullshit."

"Brother, please-" the second one plead.

"I’m not your fucking brother!" the first one angrily shouted. "I’m sick of this place. We keep salvaging all this useless shit. We’re working our asses off. For what? Father Mathias? The fucking Sun Queen? How much longer do we have to keep- Wait, wait… I didn’t-" the man's voice was overriden by a single gunshot.  
"Shit! What the… What’s going on down there? Everything okay?" the third one called down.

Sighing, Harry took in the terrain. A man with a machete in front of him, armed men all over the place. Calling up a memory, he cleared his mind, focusing _exclusively_ on one of the last lessons from Third Year.

Raising his wand slightly, he visualized the debris in the large, multi-story room, visualized the transformation. Twitching his wand slightly, he whispered, " ** _Draconifors Maxima_**."

Almost gradually, various bits of metal and stone transformed into foot-high, crimson dragons. Immediately, the dragons began attacking the cultists with the aggression of a facehugger. Flesh was rent, small flames erupted all over the place, and cultists shot at each other trying to dislodge the screaming dragons.

Harry rolled forward behind a low wall, casting shrinking charms on armored men, crushing them within their own unyielding armor. Others jammed up on a zipline after Harry cast a sticking charm on it. Still others were shredded by chunks of exploding walls as the explosive spell was judiciously used. Even the men atop the bunker who were waiting for the generator were torn into by the tiny, fire breathing dragons.

Gradually, Harry ascended the bunker, his tiny dragons leading the way until he got to the top. Looking out, he saw that he had ended up spending most of the day in getting here, and the sun was getting fairly low in the sky. And quite a distance away was the Endurance, both ends somehow dragged to the edge of the cliff face by a massive amount of cables.

"I may need to keep someone alive to figure out how they did that," Harry mumbled. "Shit, am I _really_ talking about not outright _killing_ everyone? What the hell is wrong with me?"

Another rope line lead him to a stone column, and one more brought him to the fore of the Endurance. Landing poorly, he managed to slide between the pipes stacked up there. Under the rack, he slid forward to see a couple of men trying to manhandle a mass on a crane, as well as a giant of a man berating them.

Sighing grimly, Harry banished the two smaller men off the deck, and then cast a sticking charm on the wall of the bridge.

"Ah!" screamed the huge man. "What's this? A little rat!"

"I’ll show you what this little rat can do!" Harry shouted defiantly, moving sideways as the man lunged.

"Ahhhh… Nooo!" Harry dodged the lunge, and the man's reaching hand slapped the hull, engaged the sticking charm. "I’m going to catch you, little rat!" the man screamed, trying to pull his hand off of the bulkhead.

"Incorrect," Harry stated, his sword already in motion. The man's slumped as his head evaporated, and Harry sighed.

Sheathing his sword, he asked, "Salim, am I wrong to be worried that I'm not more freaked out about this?", as he looted the large man's body for the line ascender.

'I will have to both agree and disagree,' came the smooth voice within his head even as Harry yanked open a hatch to descend. 'On one hand, your life has been threatened many times, and you have always pulled through. On the other hand, you are clearly mentally exhausted. I believe that, for the moment, you have exhausted your supply of fear and terror. These things will return once you are in a safe space and can resume considering yourself. As Miss Croft recommended, you will need to see a professional about this.'

"Right, because _this_ is why I need therapy," Harry muttered, sidling down the hallway where he resided for three weeks. Hearing a voice at the end of the hall, he paused just aside of the hull breach.

"Where’s the rest of the crew?" called the cultist a few feet from Harry's position.

A voice called up, "Down below… they went after a survivor."

"They found someone alive?"

"Yeah… we caught him in the water sneaking aboard, but he escaped below."

"The ship is starting to go down, might as well just let him die down there."

Frowning, Harry propelled the first man far out to sea. Peering over the edge of the rent metal, he saw the second one. Another spell word had him speared into the shattered metal of the deck below Harry. Descending along the zip line, Harry splashed down into the water.

"Alex?" he shouted out. "You down here?"

"Harry?" Alex's strained voice came floating down the hall as Harry floundered through the waist deep water. "What are you doing down here?"

"Came by to give you a hand," Harry called out, looking over the maintenance area of the engine room.

"Uh, I’m pinned down in here… doesn’t look good."

Harry slogged through the water to see massive cables blocking the door frame. A pair of severing charms cleared the cables, and Harry rushed through the doorway to see Alex on the floor, his leg trapped under a jagged pipe.

"You know," Harry commented conversationally," Reyes isn't going to appreciate this unexpected break time."

"Ow! Ooh fuck!," Alex exclaimed as Harry tried to lift the pipe. "Harry, I’m sorry for dragging you into this mess. I don’t know what I was thinking coming out here. I thought I could be the star in my own goddamned action movie… Guess it doesn’t always work out like that. Oh god… Harry, I’m in bad shape," he groaned out, clearly trying to keep himself out of going into shock.

"Trying to impress Lara, you mean," Harry quipped, keeping his voice light as he vanished the chunk of metal.

"Well, yeah," Alex admitted with a pained chuckle. "I mean, can you blame me?"

Harry shrugged. "Not really. I see her as a kind of sister, so I don't really know," Harry said as he ran a couple of diagnostic charms. The leg wasn't broken, but the tissue was in bad shape. "Okay, no broken bones, but you aren't walking."

"Guess my dance career is over. Wait, no chanting?"

"Hm?"

"You did all that without saying anything."

"I'll deal with it later," Harry said, focusing on the current matter.

"There the fucker is! Kill him!" shouted a voice from above them.

Harry frowned, unslinging his bag as he raised his wand. "Open the bag and get inside. Trust me, Alex," Harry stated as bullets ricocheted off of his shield. Almost a minute later, he heard the zipper closing back up, as well as the exclamation of, "Holy shit, this is nice!"

Reattaching his bag, Harry rolled through a side hatch, dropping a lit stick of dynamite behind him. Slamming the hatch closed, he felt more than heard the dynamite setting off the flammable gas cylinders. Running fast up the hall, he leapt for a zipline. Engaging the ascender, he practically _screamed_ up the line as the aft end of the Endurance began exploding, sinking beneath the waves. Landing smoothly back in the hallway, he moved fast, climbing up to the deck. Not wanting to get caught up in a chained effect, Harry attached the ascender to the zip line, returning to the stone spit in between the Endurance and the bunker.

Harry finally sat down at the bunker. Zipping open his bag, he poked his head in, saying, "Alex? You okay?"

"Hey Harry," Came Alex's weakened voice from a little ways away.

Harry hung up his bag and went inside. There just inside the living room was Alex, fully splayed out on the floor. Harry walked over and grabbed a first aid kit, tending to the injured man's leg.

"So, you weren't kidding about that magic stuff, huh?"

"Nope," Harry replied. "Drink this." Alex slammed down the potion that Harry had charged with his own magic, grimacing at the foul texture. "I've been using magic extensively since we left England. I actually go to a school for it. Hold still," Harry said, dribbling a bit of potion into the wounded leg, causing Alex to gasp at the burning sensation. "Normally, non-magicals can't use potions, since the potion uses the person's magic to power it. I'm just precharging these with my own to make them work on you."

"Okay. Right. And that... gunk you made me drink?"

"Something to keep shock away," Harry admitted.

"Got it, yeah. Sure. And... the mansion?"

"Inside my bag," Harry stated, before chanting a flesh knitting spell that seemed to take forever to cast. A slathering of dittany ointment went on next, and Harry continued as he wrapped the leg in gauze, "I ordered this before I met Lara, before I thought about coming along on this."

"Huh. This is some wild stuff."

"There's going to be a problem, Alex. You see, magicals have laws about non-magicals knowing about this stuff, and they enforce them with memory modification magics. No one can know about this stuff once we're off the island."

"Are... are you serious, Harry?"

"Deadly. Grim and Lara are allowed because of their families. I'm pretty sure Jonah has some magic in his own family line. You and Reyes, though... You two can't say _anything_ about this stuff. Shit, I may have to request that Yamatai be added to the Magical Protectorate lists, just to keep it from violating the law."

"That is some really deep stuff."

"It is. How'd you get to the Endurance, anyways?"

"Heh. I mostly swam. The locals don't go near the water, so it was the safest way."

Harry nodded at that. "Okay, you're good for now. One last favor. Please don't tell anyone about the bag. Lara already knows, but I only want to use it for emergencies. I'll keep you in here until we get to the beach; that'll let the potions work. But before we get to the camp site, you'll need to come out and walk up with me. Say that we managed to get back together."

"I can do that, Harry. Least I can do, really," Alex chuckled out.

"Alright. Kitchen is over there, grab a nap on a couch."

Now out of the bag, Harry looked over his surroundings. Letting his senses drift, he sharpened up, seeing a section of concrete that was cracked. Pulling out his wand, he managed to slide a generator off of the bunker roof, letting it's weight shatter the concrete.

Descending into the hole, he noticed instrument panels and a handful of book on a desk. Brushing aside the dried leaves, he was that they were all written in a mixture of Japanese and German, which he couldn't translate (and reminded him to learn a translation spell).

Frowning, he looked at the books themselves. "Old log books..." He mused aloud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! This one just tore itself out of my hands! Seriously, it took me about 3 hours to write it. And all I really did was swap out Harry for Lara with the rescue of Alex.
> 
> In all honesty, I was originally going to be experimental with Alex's rescue. Harry's second portkey *ever*. But then I remembered the bag. So that's what I went with.
> 
> And, as promised, a ripped, cut, shredded and swole Harry Potter.
> 
> Whether or not I get another chapter out this weekend is up in the air.
> 
> Constructive comments and criticisms are always welcome!


	10. Critical Research

Frowning, Harry slid the log books into his moke-skin pouch, as well as jotting down a note to learn a translation spell for modern languages; his knowledge of the Japanese and German languages was non-existent. He then began the trip back to the beach.

Fortunately, Harry only encountered three cultists. As they were wearing heavy armor, he simply fast-cast three shrinking charms, as well as a silencing spell over himself to prevent being affected by their screams as their armor plates crushed their chests. After looting them for more rifle ammunition, he made his way to the zip lines. Thankfully, they took him right up to the edge of the makeshift platforms along the beach.

After fishing Alex out of his bag, the pair walked up to the bunkers, Alex limping a bit.

Reyes looked up at them, saying, "When we heard the explosions, we thought..."

"Just cultists," Harry said, handing the log books to Lara.

"Man, you shoulda _seen_ Harry go!" Alex gushed. "My leg was trapped, and he got me out, shoved me out a porthole, and then set off all the gas! I think I was a little shocky, because I really have no idea how he wrestled me all the way to the bunker."

Harry just shrugged as Lara smirked at him in the gloom. "I just did what needed doing. Oh, and Doctor Whitman made it?"

"Yes," Lara replied, an edge of agitation in her voice as she looked up from one of the log books. "He ran up, screaming about being chased. Hadn't even broken a sweat. And this is all _after_ the palace."

Harry's eyebrows rose at that. "And what happened at the palace?"

"Whitman led them to Sam and me when he was _supposed_ to be keeping watch!"

"What? That’s not how it was. Lara. Th-they… they caught me while you were getting Sam."

"And you didn't bother running to warn us, why?" Lara demanded.

"It wasn't my fault!" Whitman interrupted. "They said it was the only way they'd let you all live."

"Uh- _huh_. I don't care," Harry stated, finally sitting down by the fire. "Whitman, you are the last to find out about this, and you're _really_ not going to like it."

"Oh?" Whitman asked, a hint of derision sliding into his voice. "This cock and bull story about 'being stuck here by a magic storm' that you've been feeding everyone?"

Harry sighed, then chuckled humorlessly. "Okay, full disclosure time, Whitman. You know that contract you signed? It was magical. Gringotts of London has magically sealed you from discussing _anything_ related to Yamatai pending _my exclusive_ permission. _**Evanesco. Scourgify**_ ," he incanted, waving his wand as fish bones vanished from atop a log before it was gleamingly clean. "Magic is real, and a lot of work on the international level goes into keeping it all quiet. Shut up and let me finish, Whitman!" Harry snarled as the older man opened his mouth. "By 'a lot of work', I mean memory modification and integrated discrediting of anyone who proves resistant. Lara, Grim, and I are not law-applicable, as all three of us are from known magical families. I'm pretty sure that Jonah has a little talent. As a descendant of Himiko, Sam might have protection. But you, Reyes, and Alex don't have that protection. Reyes, Roth's sister was a witch who graduated from a magical school in France, so Alisha might have the talent and just be a late bloomer."

Harry sighed, transfiguring a large stone into a leaning bench behind him. "For you specifically, you signed the non-disclosure agreement within the contract. Did you ever stop to wonder why my percentage is so low? It's because, written in script that only a magical can read, I get _everything_ magical found on the expedition. Seriously. If it's magical, it's mine by the letter of the contract."

"You mean the part of the contract that I apparently can't read?" Whitman sneered out, rolling his eyes. "Harry, that is the biggest pile of-"

" ** _Serpensortia_** ," Harry incanted as a large snake dropped out of thin air. Harry hissed at it, and it slithered out into the low grass. "I'm sorry, what part of this are you not understanding, Whitman?"

"What I don't understand," Whitman began in a low, (what he though of as) dangerous tone, "is how you get off claiming that there's a part of the contract that _I can't read_. That my lawyer didn't see. That this is all some huge magical place that you apparently own, by your words!"

Harry blinked, then considered that for a moment. "Huh. I guess I do," he mused aloud. "Given that the entire island is covered in a control ward net, soul sinks in the North, human sacrifices to empower it all, and undead samurai? Thanks, Whitman!" Harry said brightly, smiling. "You just solved a _huge_ question I'd been chewing on for a while!"

"W-what question?" Whitman asked nervously.

"Why, what to do with all this when we leave, of course!" Harry enthused. "If I claim it all as mine under the ancient Right of Discovery as well as the contract, register it with the International Confederation of Wizards as a magical protectorate under _my sole jurisdiction_ , that will cover it under the Statute of Secrecy!"

"What about me?" Whitman whined out. "I tossed in the last of my savings, too! In fact, this whole expedition was my idea!"

"That is true, and not something I'm willing to ignore," Harry said, resting his wand on his leg. "I'm sure we can figure out something between now and then to properly account for your investment."

"I hope so," Whitman groused, folding his arms.

Jonah interrupted, having speared several fish on sticks as he set them up over the fire. "Let’s just eat, okay? Those bastards went quiet, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to stay that way. If I’m going to die in this place, I’m not going to do it hungry. Save a man’s stomach, save his soul."

"My friend Ron would absolutely agree with that," Harry chuckled out.

"Finally a little positivity!" Whitman enthused. "Once Reyes finishes the boat, we’ll be back to civilization in no time… and what a tale we’ll have to tell. Well, once Harry _lets_ us."

Sam scoffed at that. "A tale? I hope I never hear Himiko’s name again!"

"We can take the boat out at high tide," Reyes began.

"No. We can’t..!" Lara and Harry replied in unison.

"Don’t start that bullshit again, you two!"

"Lara isn’t the only one who thinks we’re trapped, Reyes," Sam admitted. "Mathias may be insane, but he was certain about it. I saw it in his eyes."

"He thinks resurrecting Himiko is the key to getting off this island," Whitman threw in.

"God, it sounds crazy. But this whole place is crazy," Sam muttered.

"I don't think Mathias is wrong," Harry commented, drawing all eyes to him as his own gaze rested on the camp fire. "Storms that come up out of nowhere, soul magics littered across the island. That fire ritual? Only a little power was required, because it was in a prepared ritual space. That's unlike the storms, which is like forcing the power mains through a wristwatch. The power is overwhelming. Hell, you guys saw what it did to me!"

"He's right," Jonah interrupted. "When that storm hit the Endurance… I felt it… something dark… something alive. This place is cursed."

"He's not wrong," Grim groused, shuffling out from one of the bunkers. "My family's been at this shite for a damn long while, and let me tell you, Harry and Lara have got the right end of this. The Two Dicks would be proud."

Sam turned as Harry and Lara began getting up. "Where are you going?"

"According to the log books Harry grabbed, there are ruins beneath that old base in the cliffs. Something in there led them to believe they could control the storms. I’ve got to find out what they discovered."

Reyes turned slightly from loading another pistol magazine. "Once we’re ready to leave, we’re leaving, whether you’re back or not."

Sam smiled reassuringly at Lara and Harry "I won’t leave without you."

Ten minutes later, the pair was at the base of the facility. "So," Harry began, "what _was_ in those books?"

"What, you hadn't read them?" Lara asked incredulously.

"As it turns out," Harry sighed out, wrestling the elevator control lever over, "the translation spell that Bill taught me doesn't work on modern languages. So no, it was all garble to me."

"It seems," Lara began, setting her climbing axe, "that the Axis powers in World War Two were interested in weaponizing the storms. All of the bunkers and bases here are for that research."

"I wonder what happened to them," Harry huffed, steadily following Lara up the cliff.

"Best guess is that the Stormguard got them. Locals call them the Oni," Lara replied, gradually edging along a pipe. "No idea how they managed to build so much before they were noticed, though."

"Maybe," Harry huffed, finally clearing the ledge at the top of the stone spit, "the magics were a little dormant. Too many ships avoiding the area, not enough sacrificial energy to keep them going."

"Harry," Lara began, sitting down on a low concrete wall, "what aren't you telling me?"

Harry sighed, leaning against another wall. "When you went in to rescue Sam, I got called over by a woman dressed in black. Salim said that she's a psychopomp, and she asked me to do a task for her in exchange for some information when it was done."

"What task would a Valkyrie ask of you?" Lara asked nervously.

"Apparently, anyone who dies here gets their soul trapped. The energy of the souls is burned off to power the storms. She wanted me to destroy the soul traps, and mentioned that we probably wouldn't be able to leave without getting that done anyway."

"Damn."

"A bit of worse is in there. She also mentioned that it was Himiko's mind driving the storms. And that she can be destroyed."

"But not how."

"At least she wasn't vague and mysterious?"

Lara chuckled at that. "Thank God for that. I'd start to think we were in some kind of fantasy novel, or a video game. How are you holding up in all of this?"

Harry paused for a moment, then hesitantly said, "Not great. I feel... I feel like there's something crumbling inside my head. Maybe it's my morals? I dunno. But it's... weird, for all I can describe it. And Salim has nothing. He thinks it might be a side-effect of the storms and all the soul magics, but he's guessing as much as I am."

The pair resumed their ascent, climbing their way inexorably across and up the almost non-existent path.

"You know," Harry huffed out as they (finally) landed in a small depression in the wall below the entrance of the facility, "if I show up at Hogwarts looking like this, there'll be no end of questions."

"At least the ladies will love the new you," Lara snarked out, gauging the distance of a jump.

"Probably some blokes too," Harry admitted. 

The pair climbed up, Harry coming silently up a set of stairs as Lara scaled a low wall. The two men atop the platform were fiddling with something. Lara tagged one in the throat with an arrow, even as Harry summoned one off the platform to plummet a couple of hundred feet down.

Even more jumping and climbing followed as the pair _finally_ got to the bunker itself. Another ruined artillery cannon stood silent vigil, even as candles warmed the gloom. As they advanced, they could hear voices ahead of them.

"Oh shit, look at all those bodies."

"Keep it down!" his compatriot hissed out.

"But the Oni are here!"

"Yeah, you want ’em to find us?" the other one snarled out.

"Just shut up! And keep your eyes open for the girl and the boy."

Lara made a gesture to Harry, and Harry handed her his invisibility cloak even as he cast his disillusionment charm. The two guards were silenced by the expedience of an arrow and piercing hex to the bases of their skulls.

Harry and Lara advanced, the sides of the hallway 'decorated' with the corpses of Japanese soldiers. Grimly they kept going, until they came to what seemed to be a freight elevator. Lara hit the console button, but the thing raised only a little before grinding to a halt.

"Damn," Lara mutted. "We're going to have to use it to break through the bottom. I can see from here that the door at the bottom is locked from the other side."

"A moment," Harry muttered, packing the cloak away as he descended the stairs. "Alohomora," he incanted, and the pair heard the lock disengage.

"Where'd you find that one?"

"Standard Book of Spells, Grade One," Harry replied, "chapter seven. The Thief's Friend."

"Grade One? You learned that in your _first year_?"

Harry nodded. "Good thing, too. Or maybe bad. It got us away from Filch, but put is in front of a cerberus. Either way, we're through."

"Do you think I can do any of that?" Lara asked as they advanced.

"Maybe," Harry replied, creeping forward. "When we get back, we can hit Ollivander's. Or maybe your family has some old wands that might work for you. Shh!"

Harry leaned out, still invisible, seeing a pair of cultists down the hallway. Moving silently, he came up behind the first one.

Ten seconds later, a gagging sound came up at him from behind, as Harry'd swept his sword through the two men. Dispelling the invisibility, he turned to ask, "You okay?"

"Sorry," Lara gasped, having held in the vomit. "It's a little more graphic up close like this."

The two managed to get into the tomb itself. Harry began taking pictures while Lara made her own observations.

"These figures…," she began, gesturing to the elaborate statues, "warriors… they were in Himiko’s tomb. They protected her. And is this you?" she continued, gesturing to the painting of a bearded figure presenting a sword to a halo'd figure. "Were you some kind of general? You committed seppuku… But why?" she asked the kneeling armored corpse with a blade still extending from it's abdomen.

Lara pulled at the sword, and it easily slid free, resting heavily in her hands. "It’s beautiful… Still sharp…," she hissed, twitching her finger away from the edge. The then turned the blade, popping open a small chamber in the handle.

Pulling out a small scroll, she unrolled it. "Harry, listen to this:

"I have failed my queen. The ritual was corrupted. The priestess knew only death could save her and took her own life. Now the first and last Queen lives a half-life, a soul in a decaying body. Her rage became the storms and would not stop while her soul is tied to this earth. My Stormguard are sworn to protect her. They must continue, but I cannot."

"The soul is trapped in a decaying body… that’s what’s causing the storms," Lara said to Harry. "To stop the storms, we need to destroy the body in the ritual chamber… How the hell are we going to convince the others?"

"Won't be hard," Harry stated, shrugging. "We know where to go and what to do. We just have to get it done."

"She’s in the old tomb," a voice rang out from a side passage.

"Oh shit… we've got to get out of here!" Lara exclaimed, even as Harry was moving toward the passage they'd came in from.

"Blow those charges!"

Almost instantly, the research base tunnel collapsed from demolition charges as men began pouring in from the side tunnel.

"They're trapped! Don't let them leave here alive!"

Harry rolled to a spot behind a low stone wall, even as Lara dashed up to where the General's body was.

The battle was brutal, with fire, explosives, and many cultists dying. But a mere five minutes later, Harry was reusing the muscle knitting spell on himself; one of the cultists had nearly beheaded him, and only a lucky twitch to his right allowed him to catch the haft of the spear on his shoulder. Unfortunately, just behind the spear head were a nasty pair of short blades.

"Well, that was fun," Harry commented, finally finished getting the wound to stop bleeding.

"I just hope the others are alright," Lara muttered.

As they moved through the side passage, Lara's radio began crackling to life.

"Lara!" came Reyes' voice, with gunfire in the background. "Where the hell are you?"

"Oh no! What’s happening?" Lara demanded into her radio.

"We’re under attack!" she answered, with more gunfire in the background. "We need help!"

The radio settled into static.

"Damn it, no! We’ve got to get back there!"

The pair sprinted down the passage, finally emerging along the cliff face that the research base had been set into. A pair of guards could be seen on another ledge, and Harry simply banished them off with an impatient wave of his hand.

Moving to the zip line, Harry's radio crackled to life as Reyes' voice came back on. "Watch out, they’re on the pier! Oh shit! Fire! Fire! This boat is mine, you sons of bitches! I’ll be damned if I’m giving this thing up! Jonah! Help! Where are you? Goddammit. Alright, fuckers, is this all you got? They’re retreating!"

Harry and Lara finally made landfall after almost four minutes of negotiating zip lines. Running up, Harry began taking inventory as Lara tended to Reyes' arm, which had a deep bullet graze.

"Where' Sam?" Harry asked, looking around.

"During the attack, Whitman took Sam and they disappeared," Grim snarled out.

Lara mused at this, saying, "He’s taken her back to Mathias."

"We should have listened…" Reyes muttered.

"Fuck!" Lara shouted out.

" _I_ should’ve listened."

Jonah stepped in as Harry took over tending to Reyes' arm. "So what’s our next move?"

"The boat’s fixed now," Reyes commented. "We should get help."

"Won't happen," Harry stated flatly. "The storms will kill us."

"Look, you were right about Whitman but-" Reyes began.

"You’ve seen the storms," Lara interrupted. "They target any craft that comes near. There were scientists here during World War II, and they believed the storms were controlled by something in a ritual chamber near the monastery. Look, I don’t have all the answers, but Sam being taken, I know it’s linked. And if we try to leave here without understanding why, then we’ll all die. Just like the pilots, just like Roth…"

"Look, whatever’s happening here, Lara and Harry deserve a shot," Jonah said softly.

Reyes frowned at that, saying, "We can’t go back to their stronghold, it’d be suicide."

"They won’t take her there," Lara began, unfolding a map of the island. "They’ll take her to the ritual chamber. We can use this inlet to get closer. Look… I know you want to get home to your daughter, believe me. I do. But the fight’s not over yet. I’m not asking you to believe, Reyes, I’m asking you to trust."

Reyes could only nod at that, even as Grim was getting into the PT boat.

"Okay. Let’s get this thing in the water"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof. Another chunky chapter, lots of exposition. And we've manage to get to almost the end of the game! And no real new revelations, thankfully, just a bit of building for future story arcs. And yes, I have more arcs (sort of) planned out. Heck, I'm surprised I got a third chapter out this weekend.
> 
> My friends who have had to deal with my extensive RPG character backgrounds are not at all surprised that this has expanded so far.
> 
> From here on up to the last couple of chapters, Lara and Harry will be attached at the hip. It just works well for the story.
> 
> Constructive criticism and comments are always welcome!


	11. The Final Battle

The group traveled up the river, the interconnected waterways allowing them to make good time towards the ritual temple. Grim's steady hand on the helm was reassuring, even as Harry pulled more guns and ammunition out of his bag.

Reyes' eyes flicked over. "Lara, what do you expect to find in there?"

"Do you really want to know?"

Reyes sighed. "No. But you should tell me anyway."

"There’s the soul of an ancient Sun Queen trapped in a dead body," Lara stated. "Her rage is what’s causing these storms. If we destroy the body, the storms will stop."

"Right… And why does Mathias want Sam?"

"I don’t know. And that’s what’s scaring me the most."

"Actually," Harry interjected, loading another rifle magazine, "I think there's more to this than just 'resurrecting' Himiko. I just don't think we have enough to put it all together right now."

"Look, I know this is a crazy plan," Lara began.

"Yeah. It is," Reyes interrupted. "But right now, crazy is all we got. So let’s do this."

The boat smoothly pulled up to a cave as Harry and Jonah used ropes to pull it to the shore.

"Alright," Jonah said, hefting his shotgun. "Let’s go."

"No," Harry stated definitively. "We’ll need you four to guard the main entrance while we go in after Sam."

"Just you two? That's suicide," Reyes bit out.

"More people means more danger of being spotted," Lara sighed out. "I need you here taking out as many of those bastards as you can. It won’t just be the Solarii either… There will be… others. Samurai, the Queen’s Stormguard. Look, anything that’s not us or Sam, shoot it."

"Lara and I are the best suited for this," Harry commented, adjusting his equipment. "You guys just keep our exit open, okay?"

Harry, my Little Bird," Jonah began, gripping Harry and Lara's shoulders. "This isn’t goodbye. I’m not going to say goodbye."

"We’ve got your back, you two."

Lara and Harry crossed the ravine, Lara with the line ascender, and Harry hanging onto her foot, being dragged along upwards as he supported himself from the rope with his climbing axe. A quick belly crawl, and they were in a shallow overlook that saw Whitman approaching the temple, with Mathias dragging a bound Sam along.

"Sam!" Lara whispered. "She’s still alive… and the good doctor. What the hell are you doing, Whitman?"

With a voice full of nerves, Whitman asked, "Who are these… people?"

"They guard the monastery," Mathias answered, his wheedling voice full of oil. "They wait only to be introduced to their new Queen, by the one who brought her back to us."

Whitman smiled, drawing himself up. "Ah, of course, of course. I have encountered these archaic tribes before. Let’s get some awards, James!"

"What the hell is he doing?" Harry muttered, trying to squirm enough to be able to draw the handgun on his thigh.

"My name is Dr. James Whitman," he stated to the two Stormguard at the bridge. "I come to you in peace. I bring you your new queen."

The two Stormguard warriors looked confused at this. Clearly, the man was harmless, and wasn't directly approaching the ritual chamber.

"Your Queen," he stated, looking for Mathias, who was hiding just around the corner of the path. "What is it in Japanese…," Whitman muttered, slowly edging towards the warriors. "Your… Joou."

The Stormguard, only now realizing that this moron had crossed too close to the bridge, drew their swords. As they attacked Whitman, Mathias dragged Sam with him, and at a run the pair cut across the bridge behind the two samurai.

Lara and Harry finally managed to clear the overlook when strong winds blew not only the pursuing Stormguard, but also the bridge itself down the crevasse. Harry gritted his teeth at the pain even as Lara fired another rope arrow towards a window across the way. The pair slid down the zip line and climbed up, finally clearing the window.

Stealthily, the pair advanced down a hallway. "How are the Stormguard still protecting their queen after all these years?" Lara whispered.

"Salim thinks they're a sort of undead," Harry whispered back. "Maybe the soul magicks from the storms are keeping them alive."

They paused as four Stormguard passed in the intersection ahead; no need to get into a fight in the middle of their stronghold, after all. After clearing a barricade, the pair crab-walked down a low-ceilinged corridor which opened into what appeared to be a Stormguard staging area.

The hall was massive. Down the center, sharp divisions of armoured warriors marched in flawless precision, while scores of warriors stood at attention in deep alcoves to either side. Above, even more Stormguard stood rigidly at attention, even as a pair of massive bells were being rung. The feel of the Call To Arms was thick in the air.

The duo crept up a crumbling stone staircase and managed to leap across. Swiftly, they lept up to a ledge and began to crawl across, above the marching soldiers, and yet below the samurai standing at attention. Their ears rang as they passed under the ringing bell, but they kept on. 

Lara gestured to a ledge ahead with a gap, and Harry quick cast a sticking charm to his hand. Leaning back a little, he cast a vanishing spell, clearing the ledge of skulls (how they got all the way up there, Harry would never know). With the path cleared, the pair managed to jump to the next ledge and roll through the window, having not been seen.

Dashing down the hallway, they pair was tripped up as the floor disappeared to reveal a long downward slide. They landed poorly.

Harry got up from his roll, muttering a healing spell. "Why do I keep landing on my face?" he groaned out.

"Fuck your face," Lara huffed, slowly getting up. "I landed on my boobs."

Moving forward, Harry drew his sword as Lara pulled out her shotgun. The three Stormguard who were running towards them, swords drawn, were swiftly put down. One exploded, the other two had their heads blown off.

Once more jogging forward, the pair spotted an incongruously placed camp fire, and paused to warm their hands for a moment.

"The prayer I found on that General talked about a soul in a decaying body being the cause of the storms," Lara began. "I know he must be talking about the last Sun Queen, but I don’t understand what Himiko has to do with this. She was the first Queen. Somehow Mathias thinks Sam’s connected. And that can’t be good. I know the answer is inside that ritual chamber, but getting to it won’t be easy."

Harry frowned. "Didn't the prayer say that Himiko was 'The First and Last Queen'?" Lara nodded at that. "Could... shit, this might sound crazy."

"Like Reyes said, crazy is what we have."

"Could... could it be a kind of possession?" Harry asked. "I remember that Voldemort was possessing our defense professor in my first year. Could it be something like that?"

"Maybe," Lara admitted. "I just don't know, but I'm scared to find out what's in there."

Parting from the fire with a little regret (it was _very_ cold at this altitude), they continued down the corridor until they got to a locked door. Lara pried it open, and a blast of freezing, snow-laden air assaulted them. Slowly advancing until they could get to an area where the wind was less concentrated, they finally looked around.

On the _very_ far side of the crevasse, they could see Sam, still being dragged along by Mathias. Following their side of the ledge, the pair hurried through the freezing storm wind, Harry's warming charms barely taking off the edge of chill.

As the pair advanced, Harry's radio crackled to life.

Reyes: Alright Jonah, here they came! Get that gun!

Jonah: I got this side… call out targets!

Alex: Across the river!

Grim was shouting something offensive in Scots Gaelic, as machine gun fire could be heard.

Reyes: Come on, you bastards!

Jonah: Alex, watch out, on your right! Keep shooting! Hold them off!

Lara and Harry kept moving before sliding down another slope, landing smoothly (or at least better than the last time). The cave opened into a large room, the sides piled high with centuries of corpses, a narrow path the only trail down the center of the once palatial room. The pair gritted their teeth, putting the imagery out of their heads for the moment as they rushed through.

On exiting the room, the pair began moving across an ancient stone bridge. Gradually they were slowed by the ever increasing winds. Harry grabbed his bag off of his back and began engaging some of the defensive charms. Almost instantly, the various shield functions dropped the wind shear. Unfortunately, the protection didn't extend to the bridge.

A section collapsed, dropping them to a ledge of frozen sand. The two landed well enough to get out of the way of a couple of flaming arrows fired at them.

Lara readied her automatic rifle, while Harry pulled out his sword in one hand, his wand in the other.

An outside observer (had they been there) would have instantly seen the synergy between the two. Lara would blast the armor off of a samurai, and then Harry would place a piercing hex through it's sternum. Harry would cut the legs out from another, and Lara would finish it off with a shotgun blast to the face. Arrows flew at them, and Harry provided cover with his shield charm, while Lara picked the archers off of the walls with her rifle. Dozens of valiant Stormguard warriors were mowed down as the pair kept up their grim, inexorable advance.

Crossing a fallen stone support, Harry screamed for Lara to cover him. Lara instantly switched to her bow and began firing dynamite arrows, forcing the warriors to scramble for cover. Harry stood, ignoring all to cast his modified combination of summon and banish spell.

Fluidly, Harry chanted the focusing words, drawing the bright red bottles that had littered the landscape together. Pushing with his magic, he slammed them all into the far wall where their enemies were coming from. And then a third, large-scale spell swept across the waist-tall bottles.

Lara watched the bottles increase in size and instantly dropped a grenade arrow into the center of the lineup, managing to pull Harry down behind a fallen pillar just before it landed.

The world went white as the jars went off, the flammable liquid inside of the bottles compressing into explosive charges. The various wooden stands came apart like so much balsa wood, even as chunks of scores of Stormguard Warriors flew out and up to be swept away by the storm-force winds.

The only sounds left on the battlefield were a pair of panting breaths, almost drowned out by the winds.

Wordlessly, the pair moved forward towards the massive double doors, only to see them kicked open by a massive armoured figure carrying a club.

"Oh, him again," Lara muttered, readying her climbing as as Harry readied his sword. The winds began to increase, forcing Lara to anchor herself to the ground with her climbing axe, while Harry cast a sticking charm on the ground at his feet. Almost anticlimactically, the massive figure, being focused on his enemies, failed to notice the section of bridge swirling in the wind until he was swept off of the platform by their impact.

Blinking at their fortune, the duo ran into the antechamber of the temple, the massive doors slamming shut behind them.

"That... was intense," Harry muttered, leaning over with his hands on his knees.

"Too right," Lara replied, leaning against a pillar for a moment.

The pair got the far door open, staring at the massive chamber. Once more, hundreds of corpses were piled into corners on multiple levels. A chain reached down into a grate on the floor, and opposite the door stood a large gate.

"I think we can raise whatever is down there," Lara began, pointing at the grate, "and use it to bash open the gate."

"Fuck that," Harry muttered, advancing aggressively on the gate. Looking it over, he raised his wand, incanting ," ** _Open Sesame_**."

Instantly, the entire gate was shredded, coming apart at the rivets as the fragments were blasted to either side of Harry.

"What was that?" Lara breathlessly asked.

"The predecessor to the Unlocking Charm," Harry admitted. "Less subtle, but it gets it done."

Walking through, the pair stared at the massive gold statues decorating the next chamber.

"The Sun Queens…" Lara breathed, looking around. And then she looked at the engravings on the floor, even as Harry snapped more pictures. "The fire ritual where the Queen chooses her successor. The chosen priestess enters the monastery. She’s given your power and becomes the new queen. Wait a minute…"

Thinking back, a couple of lines popped up in her memory.

Mathias, in the throne room: _Many have given up their souls willingly for this gift_.

The Stormguard General in his death poem: _Now the first and last Queen lives a half-life, a soul in a decaying body_.

"Vessels… It’s not transferring power. It’s transferring… a soul. All these Queens. They were all… _You_ ," she realized, looking at the central statue. "Himiko. First and last. Oh god, and now you want Sam. Well, you’re not getting her."

"Well, shit," Harry muttered. "I really wish I wasn't so close to being right."

"We have to stop this madness, Harry."

"Let's go."

Pushing hard down the rough-hewn passage, and Harry again shredding the door, the pair emerged back out into the freezing wind. Jogging, they turned a corner to see the temple towering above them. Keeping moving, they advanced toward the fires at the base of it, crossing the bridge to see Mathias, with Sam held before him like a shield.

"No, no, please…," Sam fruitlessly pled to the man. "Lara!"

"Why are you doing this, Mathias?" Lara demanded, her bow already drawn.

"Do you think that you’re the hero, Lara?" Mathias spat out. "Everything I’ve done I did to survive. How many lives have you two taken to do the same? There are no heroes here, only survivors."

"Mathias," Harry called out, "you're doing this wrong!"

Mathias scowled at that. "How so, boy?"

"The storms are because Himiko is trapped in her own corpse!" Harry revealed. "Destroy the corpse, free the soul. Free the soul, and _the storms will stop_!"

"Ten years ago, I might have listened," Mathias admitted. "But not when I _know_ this will work! You'll not stop me, boy!"

Lightning lashed out from the heavens, igniting more flames, blocking Harry and Lara from pursuing Sam. Turning, Harry spotted a passage to their left.

The next thirty minutes were spent climbing. Rope arrows were deployed, sticking charms were used, climbing jumps occurred, and entire walls were blasted out in their frantic ascent towards the peak. Soon enough, they could see the bridge they'd crossed earlier, Solarii cultists running across it.

Reyes called out over the radio. "Lara, watch out! Those bastards are heading your way! We did everything we could to slow them down…"

"Thanks. Reyes, get to the boat… If we're not back…"

"We’re not leaving without you! We’ll be waiting…"

More climbing followed. Harry did not enjoy (or trust) climbing across ice frozen to the stone walls, but Lara wasn't hesitating. He especially didn't like the seemingly random lightning strikes on the walls, causing thousands of pounds of stone and ice to plummet hundreds of feet. But still, they kept moving.

For Harry, the worst part was climbing through the wind-worn outer temple. Rotten boards creaked under his weight as he followed Lara's ascent, and that was before the ice climb. Again, lightning arced across the sheer cliff face, shredding outcroppings of stone and ice alike. The duo's only saving grace was that the large chunks of ice and rock flew outwards, rather than straight down to sweep the climbers off of the wall. The pair shuddered at the tiny fragments pelting their faces, but they never slowed their advance to the ritual chamber.

Finally, they cleared the summit to see the top. There, in the center, was a raised platform. A kimono-clad corpse was kneeling atop a dais, while Sam had been forced to a kneeling position before it.

To one side was Mathias, chanting. " _Oh, great Queen. Through the trials I have brought you the vessel. Pour forth, and return to this mortal coil. Pour forth and be reborn. Pour forth and awaken!_ "

The corpse's head snapped up, her mouth open to scream as a corona of blue light flew from her, slamming into Sam as the transferral ritual was finally sparked, a thousand years late.

"Sam! Oh god, I have to get to her!" Lara exclaimed, before a fired arrow was swept away by hurricane force winds acting as a shield around the ritual.

" _Pour forth now, fill up this mortal coil_!"

A Solarii shouted, "The ritual has begun! Defend Mathias!"

Harry and Lara moved forward, Harry already casting knockback jinxes and banishing charms, while Lara had focused fire on overlooking platforms full of men with rifles.

"Just keep them back, keep them back!" another Solarii screamed.

" _Pour forth, fill up this mortal coil!_ "

"For the Queen!" came a shout from above, as armored men with shields advanced towards the pair.

" _Pour forth, fill up this mortal coil_!"

Lara dodge the swing of one of the armored figures, slamming an arrow into the gap between his helmet and coat. Harry, on the other hand, slammed his sword into another one's shield, the detonation ripping the man off of the peak.

"The Queen rises, protect her! Protect the ritual!"

"For the Sun Queen!"

Mathias was still chanting. " _Here now, your vessel awaits. Rise, great Queen. Fill this vessel with your spirit! Awaken, my Queen… Awaken! Himiko, from the storms… I bring you life… May the winds carry your essence_."

"Oh please…" Lara muttered, now focused on her new opponents. She loosed flaming arrows as Harry hit several barrels with piercing charms. The liquids went off in fiery explosions, and Harry animated the flames, fighting the severe winds to attacks the cultists.

" _Upon these winds, RISE! RISE!_ "

"Sam! Hold on!" Lara shouted as the two advanced, clearing a gap that he been scythed away in the winds.

" _With the rain, may your soul seep in, filling the vessel._ "

"Stop her, the ritual is almost complete!" another Solarii shouted. "Goddamn it, keep them back!"

"You won’t stop me, you bastards! Get the hell out of my way!" Lara screamed, loosing a pair of dynamite arrows as Harry fired his own rifle's grenades at more cultists.

" _May the winds carry your essence._ "

"Protect the ritual!" a Solarii desperately shouted out before his head was removed by a cutting charm.

" _Upon these winds, RISE! RISE! Himiko, from the storms… I bring you life… Awaken, my Queen…_ "

"The guardians are here! Ahh no, the Guardians!" a Solarii screamed as a samurai cut him down.

"Guardians! Look out!"

"Keep them back!"

Harry watched as Stormguard scaled the sheer cliffs barehanded, goggling slightly at their skill and determination. Samurai were literally _leaping_ off of raised sections to attack the Solarii defending the ritual.

" _Through the storm, RISE! RISE! Pour forth, fill up this mortal coil! Rise, great Queen. Fill this vessel with your spirit! Awaken, my Queen… Awaken! With the rain, may your soul seep in, filling the vessel. May the winds carry your essence. Upon these winds, through the storm, RISE! RISE!_ "

Lara and Harry got to a snow-covered section to see a pair of Solarii with machine guns peppering the massive Stormguard who they'd witnessed getting swept off the bridge below. His armor held, the bullets sparking off of the ancient iron as he slammed his massive, bladed club across one, and then grabbed the other, handily tossing him off of the platform.

Harry sighed, rolling to one side as Lara blasted his side with her shotgun. Harry dropped a pair of archers with spells, leaving Lara free to focus. Finally, she got a lucky shot in, forcing the huge samurai to his knees. Lunging forward, Lara slammed her climbing axe into the man's helmet, finally prying it off to reveal half-caucasian features beneath.

Harry kept picking off archers as Lara leapt up, slamming her climbing axe into the base of the half-giant's skull. Bracing her feet, she screaming as she use her legs to drag the edge of the climbing axe through the man's spinal cord.

Finally, she climbed down. The pair ran across the bridge to the ritual chamber's center.

Lara pulled out her bow, a fiery arrow at the ready. A gunshot rang out, and the upper arm of the bow shattered, the rest of it torn from her hands as she looked over to see Mathias with the pistol she'd handed Sam.

Mathias charged forward, lunging bodily at Lara. She pulled out her own pistol as Harry tucked down, coming up with his sword. Not even having his left calf blown off would stop Mathias as he slammed into Lara, slapped her pistol aside as he readied a punch. Lara managed to wrestle up her climbing axe, blocking the punch as she shoved him back, burying the blade in his shoulder.

A loud boom went off, and Mathias slumped to the side, the right side of his skull gone as Harry stood off to one side, Lara's pistol in hand, the barrel still smoking.

Harry helped Lara up, nodded to her, and lunged for Sam as Lara lit her torch. Lara was shocked to see that, as soon as Harry had grabbed Sam to haul her away, the blue light of the soul transfer was _sucked_ out of both Sam and Himiko, and into Harry's head.

Harry dropped like a sack of potatoes, and Sam was drifting in and out of consciousness as the corpse slumped, dropping off of the side of the dais to his the stone floor. Checking Harry (he was still breathing, and his heart rate seemed okay), Lara gathered up Sam in her arms. Within minutes, the storm that was raging had subsided, and a warm ray of sunshine bathed the pair in light.

"Urgg… wha? Lara… what’s happening?" Sam asked, still groggy.

"Shhh… shhh… I’m here. You’re safe now. It’s okay… it’s okay."

"You saved me… I knew you would."

Lara smiled at that. "We made you a promise. Let’s get you home as soon as Harry wakes up."

"Harry? He's here too?"

"Yes. But he passed out trying to get you clear. I'm not sure what happened."

Meanwhile, in a flat, grey space, Harry looked around. Over there was a chair with a somewhat indistinct man in it, and Salim was helping him to his feet.

"Over here, young master," Salim said, gesturing towards the chair.

As Harry approached, the man's features began to become clear. The man stood, revealing a tall, good looking figure with dark hair. Middle-aged, with a bit of silver at the temples, the man was dressed in a well fitted suit.

"Hello, Harry," the man began, smiling congenially. "My name is Tom Riddle."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! I honestly didn't think I'd get through BOTH the battle with the Stormguard and the Battle at the ritual chamber in one chapter! Goodness!
> 
> And here we are. Just about to lay out some heavy revelations, as well as some stuff that I've been working towards from the very beginning. Yeah, it's a cliffhanger. But it's an appropriate one.
> 
> Interestingly, the Open Sesame spell *is canon. And it apparently shreds doors. The unlocking charm after it destroyed the lock, and the current Alohomora actually unlocks something. Got to love the research!
> 
> As always, contsructive comments and criticism is always welcome!


	12. The Final Steps

Harry blinked, his right foot sliding back as Salim placed his hand on the blade on his hip. Riddle chuckled, saying, "Gentlemen, that isn't necessary. Harry, I can no more harm you than Salim can. If we can all be seated, I'd like to explain a few things. Our time is quite short, after all."

Tom waved his hand, and two more chairs materialized in the grey space, well as a merrily burning fireplace. Sitting back down, Tom began. "Now, I know you're wondering how I'm here. As it happens, on the night when I tried to kill you as a toddler, something... happened. A portion of my soul, the bit you see before you, became lodged behind your famous scar."

"Wait, I've had a piece of _Voldemort_ in my head for over a decade?" Harry asked a bit of horror in his voice.

"Oh yes," Tom replied calmly. "I did... _something_ to myself, not entirely sure _what_ it was, but whatever it was that I did allowed this to happen."

" _Something_?" Harry asked. "You can't remember?"

"I cannot," Tom happily answered. "It seems that, as this event was unintentional, my own memories are a bit fragmented. However, memory leakage from me to you wasn't possible with the protections that you bear. They kept me at bay, resting within a portion of your sinus cavity."

"So you were a soul bogey?"

"What an unusual way of putting it," Tom mused aloud, clearly entertained at the notion. "Now, you're wondering how I know all of this. There are several reasons, interesting ones, I assure you. First, people may say whatever they like about Tom Riddle, or Voldemort, but they could _n_ _ever_ accuse me of being stupid or lazy. In addition, during the duration of your travel, the walls between us have slowly become less and less solid as your protections began to properly charge. Ever since the breaking of the power drains on them, the protections that you enjoy have been rebuilding their charge. I would actually wager that, had the extra drain on them not been utilized, I would have been ejected within a month or so.

"Incidentally," he added with a smile, "those protections from your mother were what has been causing your 'stress headaches'. Yamatai's soul magicks simply made them worse, as the protections guard against such things. And I know these things because we are now _merging_."

"And if that was something I didn't want?" Harry asked warily.

Tom shrugged at the question. "It's not as if you have much of a choice, Harry. The current circumstances are most likely unique in all of history."

"If you could explain that?"

"Ah, of course," Tom chuckled. "You see, ever since your uncle threw you out, the wards on his property linked to your protection began to break down. I would estimate that the link properly ended once you left Britain, thus ending the power drain. Your performing of the Right of Conquest gave you absolute dominion over me, weakening my grip. The anti-possession magics at Gringotts nearly dislodged me entirely, but I had been in your head for too long. It _did_ allow your protections to begin attacking me directly, thus your early stress headaches during periods of high emotion. A kind of internalized 'accidental magic', if you will.

"Once you left Britain, the protections began to properly charge, readying themselves for an assault on me. Fortunately or not, we arrived on Yamatai two days ago, immersing ourselves in the net of soul magicks. As the protections are best suited towards guarding against that manner of thing, the protections began operating at closer to full power in your defense, causing the blinding headaches.

"And then there is now," Tom continued, sipping from a glass that appeared at his elbow. "Like it or not, the protections have once more fully discharged given the soul onslaught from Himiko. By interrupting the transfer ritual, and as a, already set up soul container, you accidentally were invaded by the entire soul of Himiko, drawing it in full from both her and Miss Nishimura." Tom sighed, shaking his head at that. "So right now, the protections have shunted me into you to prepare the rest of you for dealing with Himiko."

Harry blinked, sifting through all of that. "And what's to keep you from just taking me over?"

Tom laughed at that. "That's an impossibility for a couple of reasons, Harry. First is that, while I've been stuck in your head, I have been altered because of my ability to see the world through your eyes. That's... That's not _exactly_ factual," Tom admitted, "but it's the simplest explanation without having to get into theoretical arithmancy and how it crosses over into theosophical physics."

"Ah, yeah," Harry replied, not sure of what to make of that.

"Basically, the theory is that if a person is changing another, so they too are altered. Just as I have been in the back of your mind enhancing your flight reflex, so too have you been exposing me to the world at large through your eyes. Your friends, your jerks of family members, all of it. And it has made me a better, more positive soul bit. Thus my appearance. I no longer look inhuman, thanks to my own exposure to your own humanity."

"Huh," Harry replied before looking at Salim. "What do you think?"

Salim sighed, shaking his head. "As I have stated before, young master, soul sorceries were never our field. But I do believe that he speaks the truth as he is aware of it."

"Right. So, Tom," Harry continued, "what other reasons do you have to guarantee you can't possess me like Quirrell got?"

"Ah. The other reason is because I soon will cease to exist as a separate entity," Tom admitted with a chuckle. "You see, the protections from your mother are forcing the mergence. As I am but a sliver of a soul, I will be subsumed within your subconscious, consumed whole."

"You... seem kind of happy about that," Harry commented, a bit of nervousness lacing his voice.

"It means that the pain of isolation will be done," Tom gently stated.

"Right. So what does that mean for me?"

"Essentially, while you have proven yourself extraordinarily capable of mastering all manner of practical magic and techniques, you lack the knack for the esoteric, the theoretical. You will receive some of my natural, instinctive genius for such things. Also, you will begin to glean some of my skills over time. Think of it like an out of shape athlete. They have the skills, but must rebuild the muscle memory. Does that make sense?"

"I think so," Harry said, considering all of that. "Basically, I get a bit of your smarts and your knack for the weird stuff. I'll be relearning spells because I technically already know them, making it easier for me to learn new things."

"Absolutely correct," Tom confirmed, smiling brightly. "Now, the _actual_ reason for our merging is because the soul of Himiko is making her way in. The protections have temporarily slowed her in the soul jar where I resided, but they weren't quite at full power to be able to wipe her away."

"Oh. Oh, hell. That's what I need. An insane Sun Queen inside of my head."

"Actually, that should be fairly easy to manage," Tom smoothly replied. "While quite mad, her madness is unfocused. Her power will not be able to be fully brought to bear upon you, not with her link to the rest of Yamatai."

"But, with that kind of power, can't she just overpower me?" Harry asked.

"Not... as such," Tom slowly stated. "It's like... It's like a car. A person can enhance the engine all they want, but the car is limited by the contact the tires make with the road. Does that make sense?"

"I think so," Harry said. "So long as Himiko maintains control over Yamatai, her power is too spread out to bring directly to me. And channeling that much power directly would mess her up."

"An excellent summation. And her madness makes her much _much_ easier to manage in your personal mindscape."

"I think I understand," Harry replied, getting up to stretch a little. "Anything else you want to tell me?"

"A couple of things. Consider them advice for life," Tom said, leaning forward. "First, stop being such a doormat. While I doubt that this will be a problem going forward, it's distressingly easy to fall back into bad habits. Your inability to refuse someone at Hogwarts is debilitating. Second, take the time to do a solid review of your friends. Even as congenial as I am now, I would not condone Ronald Weasley to continue living. Third, if Magical Britain expects something of you, tries to force you into doing something unconscionable, leave. You have places to go, and resources at your fingertips. Use them.

"I think that's about it," Tom stated, shaking Harry's hand. "And that I do believe that you will have many more adventures to come."

"Thanks, Tom. Oh, why _did_ you originally come after me, anyways?"

"I was..." Tom stopped, frowning. "I was... told something? By... someone, I'm sure. Hrm. You know, this memory fragmentation is irritating. Someone told me something, something that set me off enough to go after a certain child born at the end of July. More than that, I'm afraid I cannot say. There just isn't anything more there, Harry."

"I get you. Salim, is there any way to adjust this mergence towards the bracer? You know, make it easier to go through?"

"I'm afraid not, young master," Salim admitted. "Were we near the Chamber, it would be simplicity to accomplish. But given our limitations..."

"Got it. Damn. Alright, let's get this done. Any suggestions for dealing with a two thousand year old nutter?"

"I recommend," Tom replied, laughing at that, "that you merely keep ahold of your mindscape. It's yours and yours alone. Himiko cannot stand before you in your own heart."

"Right. Let's do this."

Harry turned, dismissing the chairs and fireplace. Tom faded from view, and Harry could almost feel him as a very slight pressure on his consciousness. "You ready, Salim?"

"Always, young master," Salim replied, drawing his sword. "What of you?"

Harry shrugged at the question. "I guess I'll wing it. Again."

Focusing, Harry envisioned a portal to the 'soul container'. Long, bedraggled hair slumped out through it, as a body slowly crawled it's way through. She came upright, and a halo of electricity formed around her head even as her kimono and hair artfully arranged itself.

Harry had to admit that, while the body of Himiko was beautiful, her absolute madness swirled around her like a cloak of wrong reality. It was as if her very presence polluted the area around her.

"Sun Queen Himiko," Harry began, "you stand in my mindscape. Will you release the storms so that we may depart?"

"Never!" Himoko screamed, her voice carrying the sound of poisoned moonbeams and the scent of deathcap mushrooms. "I'll take you, and become beautiful through another!"

Harry sighed, popping his neck. "Himiko. In the name of the line of Potter, I declare my Conquest over you. I strip you of your connection to the lands you were _supposed_ to protect." Himiko shrieked as Harry watched threads of power sever themselves from her form. "I strip you of the authority you abused as Sun Queen." Harry watched her halo of electricity wink out. "Last but not least, I strip you of your _existence_."

Harry hadn't noticed, but Salim was watching as everything Harry stripped Himiko of attached itself to Harry's magic. The connections, the halo. And now, as Harry was watching Himiko literally come apart, Salim observed the bits flying off of Himiko and attaching themselves to Harry, the protections that Tom Riddle had spoken of visibly working the pieces of Himiko's very soul into Harry's.

Harry turned. "So, what do you think? Did I do it right?"

Salim smirked before sinking to one knee. "I believe that you did, Your Majesty."

Harry's eyes widened at that. "What?"

"Well," Salim continued, looking up at Harry, his eyes full of mirth, "when you stripped her of all of those things, they had to go _somewhere_ , did they not?"

"I... Don't... Wha-..." Harry closed his eyes, and then screamed. Calming himself down, he muttered, "Goddamnit, I did it to myself."

"Hm?" Salim asked, getting back up to his feet.

"Bill said that I wouldn't notice someone crowning me until I caught them in the act. And I went and did it to myself!"

Salim could only laugh at that.  
*****  
Lara watched as Harry groaned, slowly rolling over onto his back. Sam was leaning against the dais, slowly coming to as she rushed over to help Harry up. "Are you alright?"

"No," Harry admitted, "but that never stopped me before. How's Sam?"

"She's still a little out of it."

"Okay. You get her down to the boat. I have to set this spot up to blow."

"Harry, are you sure?" Lara asked uncertainly.

"Yup," Harry replied. "I can explain later, once it's done. And trust me, I only want to go through this once."

Lara picked up Sam, and began to carry her down the path that Mathias had brought her up. Harry, meanwhile, began going through Himiko's knowledge. Fortunately, Salim was there to assist. Getting to the soul traps was simple enough. Destroying them would be a touch trickier.

'Young master, are you certain we can get clear?' Salim asked nervously.

"Fairly," Harry replied, using his wand to tear entire paving slabs out of the floor of the ritual chamber. "I have a bit of a back-up plan. Enough to get us out alive, if injured."

'Understood,' Salim responded, sighing. 'I will admit that this method of immortality is interesting. Soul transfer. Fascinating.'

"Maybe," Harry admitted, "but with the ritual chamber gone, it'll be a lot more difficult to pull off. And if I can get ahold of the Wei Mirror and destroy that, it'll be almost impossible."

'What does the mirror do?'

"When someone uses the mirror to reflect sunlight onto someone, it forces their soul out of their body. I guess it acts like the Dementor's Kiss. Add in the 'Pour Forth' ritual, and it wouldn't be hard to jump bodies."

Harry had finally managed to clear enough stone to reveal the soul traps. He couldn't actually make out their physical forms through the pulsating, quivering coronas of power (Harry mentally noted that he and Lara _had_ killed an awful lot of cultists over the last two days), even though he had their designs in his head.

'There is one other thing, master. And it goes along with the basilisk heart strings...'

Harry listened and then, sighing heavily, he opened his pack. Pulling out his potions kit and a knife, he began mixing...

Down at the boat, four people were keeping a careful eye out.

Jonah called out, "There’s Lara… she’s got Sam. She did it."

"I think she is going to be okay," Lara said, gently handing Sam off to Jonah.

"What happened up there?" Jonah asked, looking up at the peak.

"It’s over. We just have to wait for..."

The sun rose in the North, as the top quarter of the mountain was sheared off by a silent explosion, all of the debris falling away from the tiny dock. Picked out in the fading glare was Harry, almost plummeting towards them on a broom.

" _ **Arresto Momentum**_ ," he chanted, slowing down his fall from something less than a terminal speed. He slowly, roughly glided to a stop, his teeth clearly gritted in his attempt to control the damaged broom. Finally, he stepped into the boat, saying, "I think we're almost done. I need to wrap up a couple of things before we go."

"Like what?" Alex asked, finally taking his hands off of the forward machine gun.

"I need to meet with the surviving Stormguard, get their allegiance. Need to adjust the ward net to repel ships rather than draw them in. The soul traps are gone, so I think that's all that's left. While I'm doing that, you all can get supplies. Fuel, radio equipment, and so on."

"That's a good idea," Grim admitted, pulling the boat away from the shore line. "Shipping lanes won't be far, but we don't know where that rescue ship is."

"Exactly. I suggest we leave here tomorrow with the tide. That'll let us get everything in order."

Harry had Grim drop him off near the village where the plane went down. Walking in, he saw that Mathias had seemingly withdrew nearly every Solarii to defend the ritual. Sitting down by the camp fire, he finally took a moment to rest his aching muscles.

"Hello again, Harry Potter," a slightly familiar voice lilted towards him. Harry turned to see the pale woman in black walking up, a pleasant smile on her face.

"Hello," Harry replied, moving over on the log. "I was hoping you'd show up soon."

"Oh?" she asked teasingly.

"Well, it's not every day that a representative of in eternal concept swings by," Harry said, pulling out a couple of mugs.

"So you've figured it out?" she asked, a hint of nervousness in her tone.

"I think so," Harry replied, pouring powder and milk into them.

"I do," she said with a smile.

"Fantastic. These two will be ready in a bit. The heating charm will have them hot in a moment. Anyways, I believe that you are an aspect of Death."

"You are correct. How did you figure it out?"

"Salim called you a psychopomp, one of the ferrymen of the dead. But you also mentioned that you'd see me again, no matter if I succeeded or failed. That can only mean that you are Death in some manner."

"And does this bother you?" she asked curiously.

"I think," Harry slowly began, "that knowing that someone like you will be there at the end, no matter what, is a kind of comfort. I think it makes the fear of the unknown a little less."

Her smile became jovially bright at Harry's comment. "That is one of the best responses I've ever gotten. Thank you for that, Harry. And now for your pay."

"This ought to be interesting," Harry replied, passing her a steaming mug of cocoa.

"It will be," she said in a reassuring tone. "The significance of the numbers of three and seven, specifically how they apply to you.

"First is the number seven. Tom Riddle tried to break his soul up into seven parts. That is to say, six fragments and the main portion. His attempt to cheat his passing in such a way leads only to insanity, honestly. I can say that you are on the right path to finding all of them, and I'm glad that you managed to deal with the one within you. Once you return to Britain, you will find out more about all of that; the curse breakers are having fun poking at the one that they found in the Gaunt Shack."

"Huh. That would explain Dobby's reaction," Harry commented, sipping his own cocoa. "Anything else I need to know about that? Locations and such?"

"Probably not," Death replied. "After all, these objects can be moved. And curse breakers are trained to find such things. You should be alright there."

"Okay. Makes sense, I suppose."

"Next is the significance of the number three. In Magical Britain, there is a popular children's story entitled The Tale of Three Brothers. It's a fairly depressing story about three brothers who annoyed 'Death' by crossing a river with magic, and were 'awarded' items of their choosing that would let them essentially hang themselves. It's a story of why it's bad to be greedy, I think.

" _Anyways_ , those three items, the so-called Deathly Hallows do exist. They are the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak. You already possess the cloak, and the stone is at Gringotts in your name. The wand is elsewhere, but you'll have access to it when you get back to Britain."

"Okay," Harry slowly sighed, his mind trying to wrap itself around these facts. "I guess I don't understand what's so special about these things."

"The wand is the most powerful in the world. Well, for a _wand_ , anyways," she admitted. "Apart from a descendant of the Peverell line, which is you, by the way, it can only be won by defeating the previous wielder. The cloak is a perfect invisibility cloak, never wears out, and always provides perfect concealment. The stone can be used to pull the shades of the dead to the world of the living, although the act causes them great discomfort after a little time."

"And as a Peverell, I'm supposed to get these things?"

Death shrugged. "That's up to you, Harry."

"And did you give these things to them?"

Death smiled, giggling at the question. "Yes and no. While it's true that they got the materials from my advice, I didn't construct them. They did all the work. They _are_ still quite potent items by themselves. And the legend claims that anyone who can claim all three of the Hallows will become the 'Master of Death'."

"That... sounds like a recipe for disaster," Harry admitted. "Is there anything to it?"

"Hmm. Not like most people would think. If you manage to get them together, I'll show you what the title _actually_ means. Sound good?"

"Sure," Harry agreed, shrugging. "Going by your description, it sounds like it'll be funny."

"Fantastic," Death replied, finished her cup of cocoa. "I will say that your... _explosive_ solution to the soul traps was amusingly innovative. So before I go, is there anything I might be able to do for you?"

Harry considered this for a moment. "Two things, actually. If they're not an imposition." She nodded for him to continue. "First, I need to meet with what's left of the Stormguard, with their new leader. Then I need to get back to the beach with the battle ship on it. Would you be kind enough to get me to and from?"

"I would be delighted," Death replied, taking Harry by the hand.

Four hours later, Grim spotted Harry trudging towards the boat. "You made it! Great, great. Are you alright, lad?"

"No," Harry admitted numbly. "But I got my stuff done. Can we go now?"

"In a couple of hours, yeah," Grim said, leading Harry towards the beach bunkers. "Reyes and Jonah are getting fuel, and Alex and Lara are over at the Endurance getting some radio equipment."

"Good, good," Harry blankly replied, sitting down heavily in front of the fire.

"Lad, what's wrong?" Grim asked, sitting down on a short drum. 

"Grim, you've seen some stuff, right? Like, stuff that'd drive most people around the bend?"

"Aye, I have. What's eating at you."

Harry sighed. Shuddering slightly, he began his tale. "Went to meet with what's left of the Stormguard. There's maybe four hundred of them left. The rest were basically undead, being kept alive through Himiko's sorceries and cannibalism of shipwreck survivors. I met with the leader, he swore allegiance to me, the new Sun King. Then he showed me how they were keeping up their numbers."

Harry gagged for a moment. "They had a lot of women in there. Forced breeding. They were... gone. No minds left. They were just baby factories. Oh God. I just... I put an end to it, and then put a piercing charm through each one's forehead. Ordered the Stormguard to bury them. I... It was all I could do, Grim."

Grim patted Harry on the shoulder, saying, "You did the right thing, lad. And for some, a merciful death is the best thing they can ask for. Trust me, I've seen it. Take your time, lad, get yourself together. You've done more than a man's work today."

30 July, 1994  
11:15 A.M.  
Freighter Trinity  
Philippines Sea

Harry and Lara relaxed against each other, looking out to sea by the edge of the railing, finally away from Yamatai even as the rest of the crew was seated against a shipping crate, talking about what they'd do when they got back.

A sailor walked up to Lara and Harry. "You two need anything?" Lara and Harry shook their heads in unison. The sailor looked out to sea, saying, "Don’t rightly know what happened to you on that island. And judging from those wounds and that look in your eyes, I’m guessin’ I don’t wanna know. Anyway, we’ll be home soon."

"Where's home?" Harry asked curiously.

"Roanapur."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap on the Tomb Raider arc! Whew, what a ride! I have to admit, I was wondering if I'd ever actually get to this spot. And this was actually much harder than the previous arc. By timing it alongside the Tomb Raider game, I couldn't be as free form as I'd been.
> 
> Next stop: Black Lagoon! That's right, Harry Potter is headed to Roanapur, Thailand! For those who may be unfamiliar, the anime/mange series Black Lagoon is where we're going. I plan to drop Harry in just prior to the Greenback Jane arc, in case people need to know where in the local timeline I'm putting matters.
> 
> Anyways, I do hope that this all answers a LOT of questions that I've been hinting at for months now. Holy crap, I've been writing this stuff since April 2020? Criminy.
> 
> Anyways, I am off. Now I have to do my research by rereading the Black Lagoon mangas. 
> 
> I hope you have had as much fun reading this as I have writing it. And as always, constructive comments and criticisms are always welcome.


End file.
